A Certain Strange New World
by Blazingstarz258
Summary: Asuna and Misaka Mikoto are both students attending Tokiwadai Middle School. Even in Academy City Sword Art Online has become the game everybody wants to get. Asuna and Mikoto are able to access the game but find out there is a deadly twist to it and the two girls must find a way to cope with the horrible reality and survive.
1. From Academy City to a New World

**Author's note:** I just recently got into the SAO series, so I decided to write a crossover fanfic with the Railgun and SAO universes. However in this story I will be implementing some character development changes within the original characters in both series. Remember that this is a fanfiction, where almost anything can happen. I promise to avoid OOC (out of character) personalities since the original personalities are what make these characters so likeable and unique in the first place.

I came up with the idea to write this fanfic since I thought it would be interesting to hear the story of SAO told from the perspective of Asuna as well as Misaka Mikoto from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun.

Anyways, I hope everybody finds this story to be enjoyable!

**Chapter 1: From Academy City to a New World**

Academy City, the renowned city known for having technological advancements 20-30 years ahead of any other part of the world. As its name suggests, the city is filled with institutions meant for schooling and educating young minds.

However Academy City prides itself in being a place dedicated to esper power development. In its population of 2.3 million people, 80% of them are students. A good amount of those students are classified as "espers", those who possess paranormal abilities. Academy city's main goal is to create and develop efficiently strong espers, which is why students studying there are seen as major assets.

The subject Academy City students commonly conversed about was obviously espers and different types of abilities. Lately, esper related issues were not the main topic of conversation among students; it was something else entirely different.

Even in a certain elite all girl's institution, this topic was a popular conversation starter.

"Misaka-san, Shirai-san, are you two going to buy that game or not?" A girl with long orange brownish hair ran after the two espers who were approaching the bus stop for Tokiwadai's outer dormitories.

Misaka Mikoto and Shirai Kuroko turned around and saw their long haired friend running after them, so they stopped their walking pace allowing her to catch up to them.

"Come on Yuuki-san, us girls at Tokiwadai pride ourselves in our top academic and esper development curriculum, not in silly games." Kuroko shook her head.

"I told you many times before, no need to call me so formally, just call me Asuna." Yuuki Asuna smiles.

Even at an all-girls school, Asuna was quite the looker. She was one of the most attractive girls at Tokiwadai, which gained her some fan girls as well as people who were jealous of her looks. One of the main reasons her parents made her transfer to Tokiwadai last year was because they were tired of her being pestered by admiring boys. Every week she would receive at least one love confession or love letters and gifts piled up in her shoe box.

When her parents found out about this, they thought she would become boy crazy and be distracted from her schoolwork. So they had her apply to switch into Tokiwadai, one of the top schools of Academy City. Attending Tokiwadai would allow her to become free of an environment of boys and she could focus on developing her esper ability even further. Thankfully she was at least a level 3, which was one of the main requirements to get into Tokiwadai.

"Kuroko and I sometimes forget about that." Mikoto smirks. "You are our senpai after all, so we try to be as formal as possible."

"You two sometimes are too serious, even though you're my kouhais we can be casual with each other… unless you want to start calling me Asuna-sama?"

"Err no thanks." The electromaster chuckles a bit. "We'll just stick with Asuna-san. So are you into gaming? You've been talking about that new popular game coming out soon… what was it called again?"

"It's called Sword Art Online." Asuna answers.

"Sword Art Online? It sounds like such a silly game. Are swords going to be used to create art instead of paint brushes?" Kuroko says jokingly.

"It's not going to be lame at all, especially since beta users have been posting online about how cool the game is. They aren't allowed to talk about game specifics, but they've just been getting everybody so excited for it." Asuna's eyes looked like she was a little kid in a toy store.

"Huh? Beta users?" Mikoto was confused with that term.

"Before any major game comes out, some companies have people play the game before it is officially released to the public. Those people are called beta users." The long haired girl explains as she enters into the bus with Kuroko and Mikoto.

"Beta users are so lucky, since there are only one thousand chosen. Once the game comes out to everybody, the beta users have an advantage since they know what to do while everybody else is struggling on where to begin." Asuna continues her explanation.

"Sounds like you've been doing your research on this game instead of studying lately." Kuroko playfully banters.

"I've been studying as well! I'll be sure to make time for studying and playing SAO."

"You are one of Tokiwadai's top third years, so it would look bad if your grades are slipping because of some ridiculous game."

"Now now, there's more to life than schoolwork, everybody needs their own hobby." Mikoto defended Asuna while nervously smiling.

"Speaking of hobbies onee-sama you need to find better hobbies than collecting Gekota accessories and stand reading manga at the convenience store!" Kuroko pointed an accusing finger at her onee-sama. "Also you should find a better taste in clothing than those ridiculous shorts you wear underneath your skirt and those ridiculous childlike panties – gah!"

Mikoto smacked Kuroko on her head for saying her childish preferences out loud. Girls on the bus were beginning to stare as a certain electromaster and teleporter were making quite a scene.

"No-no need to get so violent now." Asuna sweat dropped smiling. "Shirai-san is surely just messing around with Misaka-san as usual."

_Does Tokiwadai's Ace really wear childish underwear?_ The hazel eyed girl couldn't help but wonder.

"Don't worry onee-sama, I Shirai Kuroko promise to turn you into a proper lady by the end of the year."

"Why the hell should I get lady lessons from you?! You have an extreme case of being a creepy pervert and stalker." Mikoto retorts back with an angry fist.

"Me stalk you? What proof do you have?!" Kuroko scoffs at the bold accusation made.

"How about that photo album with those candid photos you took of me sleeping, showering, and even my pictures from my childhood."

"But that's for my collection of onee-sama's brilliance."

"Sounds like Shirai-san has the talent for photography. If you really do have photos of Misaka-san when she was a child, I would like to see them."

"Asuna-san, stop encouraging her!"

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The bus dropped all of the Tokiwadai students to their dormitory located outside the School Garden. While it seemed convenient to live within the School Garden, where the school was at, some students preferred to live in the outer dormitory since they could experience life not being confined within that community.

Asuna had chosen to live in the outer dormitory since she experienced living within the School Garden the previous year when she transferred to Tokiwadai. The atmosphere of the girls in there was too much for her since they all were so serious about being lady like.

Asuna wanted to be in an environment where it was not so strict and people not so snobby or arrogant. She was surprised to find out that Tokiwadai's Ace and Railgun was living in the room right next door to hers. At first she thought Mikoto was a person who was the paradigm of being an ojou-sama but it turns out she was quite the opposite. Misaka Mikoto was a very nice girl who treated everybody equally no matter what level they are, and acted like a normal person instead of a proper ojou-sama.

The two of them became friends when Asuna happened to be in the convenience store and noticed Mikoto was reading one of her favorite manga series. The two of them hit it off well and became good friends ever since. She eventually became on good terms with Kuroko as well but it was Mikoto that she was closer to.

Back in her dorm room, she saw that her roommate was not there and sighed relieved. One of the reasons that she enjoyed being in the presence of Mikoto and Kuroko was because her roommate was a very distant and cold person. The roommate hardly addressed Asuna at all, unless it was to tell her if she was getting in the way of something.

Asuna opens her laptop and sees an email from her brother and excitedly opens it. She hardly saw her family during the year since she was living at Academy City, so she was always happy whenever they made an attempt to keep in contact with her.

She opens the email and reads

_Hello Asuna_

_It's been a while since I've kept in touch with you, sorry if I made you feel that I forgot about you. Don't worry, I have not forgotten about my precious younger sister. I hope you are having a good time studying at Academy City. Mom and dad are hoping that you are not afraid from being so far away from home. To help relieve your stress from your studies, I bought you a nerve gear set and am going to send you the highly anticipated game, Sword Art Online. Even though mom and dad would probably be angry at me for doing this, I want you to have fun every now and then. Let me know how the game is, I'm very excited to hear how good it is._

_From, Kouichirou_

Asuna gasped out loud happily when she read that her brother was going to send her a nerve gear and SAO. She read the email over again to make sure that her eyes had not deceived her and felt very giddy. Now if only she could convince Mikoto or Kuroko to buy the game as well. She really wanted at least one friend to play the game with.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was now a week before SAO was released in the stores and the buzz about it was becoming even more prevalent. Blogs and social networking sites were full of posts from excited people. There were groups that even planned to camp out at the gaming stores.

Academy City officials were probably worried that their students would become more occupied with SAO than with their academics, but there was nothing they could do to stop the SAO fever. Asuna was also part of the fan fervor and was glad that she did not have to be one of the many people waiting at stores overnight. With only ten thousand copies of SAO available to the public, it was no wonder why people were willing to take drastic measures to obtain the game.

The well-known shopping mall in the seventh district, Seventh Mist even had a special raffle and the winner of the raffle would receive a free nerve gear and have SAO mailed to them when the game was out. There were thousands upon thousands of people who entered in the raffle. Asuna, Mikoto and Kuroko happened to be there that day since many stores in Seventh Mist were having special deals. The three girls decided to join in on the fun and entered themselves into the raffle.

When it was time for the lucky winner to be announced, everybody was holding onto their breaths. Apparently Misaka Mikoto ended up being that lucky winner and her popularity soared even more when people saw it was the famous Railgun who had won the drawing.

Back at the Tokiwadai dormitory, Asuna was hanging out in Mikoto and Kuroko's room and was holding onto her nerve gear helmet. Right now she and Mikoto were reading through the nerve gear manual, attempting to figure how to work the device.

"I still can't believe you won the raffle. Your luck really knows no bounds." Asuna was sitting on Mikoto's bed staring at the helmet

"I wasn't really intent on winning, but I guess it's meant to be." The electromaster smiled. She was sitting at her desk while flipping through the manual. "I'm surprised Academy City hasn't used this device for virtual reality training."

"It's probably because Academy City doesn't trust advanced technology that wasn't built within the city." Kuroko hypothesized. She was sitting on her bed as well and then suddenly jumped from her bed over to Mikoto's.

"Onee-sama's scent is so intoxicating~" The teleporter grabbed onto one of Mikoto's pillows and began rubbing her face against it.

"Get off my bed you pervert!" The electromaster yelled out.

"Asuna-san is on your bed! That means I can go on it too."

"I gave her permission to sit on there, not you! Mikoto took out an eraser and threw it at Kuroko.

Kuroko was able to teleport before the eraser hit her and was now back on her side of the room.

"You're so mean onee-sama!"

Asuna puts on an amused expression as she watches the two roommates bicker with each other. One refreshing aspect of living in this particular dormitory was watching the interesting type of relationship Mikoto and Kuroko had. Asuna knew that even though Mikoto was always annoyed by Kuroko's perverted antics, the electromaster heavily valued her friendship with the teleporter. Despite how many fans Mikoto had, she did not have many real friends since people were most likely afraid of her high status as one of the city's level fives.

Then there was Kuroko, who apparently had legally kicked out Mikoto's former roommate. Asuna was always curious about the story behind that incident but she was always hesitant to ask. It was safe to say that Kuroko was Mikoto's die hard number one fan. Kuroko was one of the only few people who knew about Mikoto's true nature, how she is a hard headed, competitive, short tempered and childish person instead of the ladylike persona she puts on during school. Though their friendship was definitely not normal, it was a very unique one.

"Misaka-san, promise me that we'll play SAO at the same time. I know that we are going to be very lost and confused in the game at first, but it's always better to be lost with a friend." Asuna looked towards the electromaster.

"Of course, I'll keep that promise for sure." Mikoto nods. "Do you have any idea how the nerve gear is supposed to work?"

"Apparently we are supposed to be in a comfortable position, put on the Nerve Gear and then it will allow us to connect into the world of SAO. According to the guidelines of any other VRMMORPG, we are supposed to create our own avatar when we first start the game."

"VRM what now?" Mikoto was not familiar with any of the gaming concepts and terms at all.

"Virtual reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game." Asuna said the long term from memory. "Role playing means that we get to take on different types of roles and become somebody else. In other games, people can choose which type of human or animal they want to become."

"That sounds so interesting. I definitely need to do research on VRMMORPG's now so that I won't be completely lost now."

"Onee-sama… don't tell me you are going to take up gaming as your hobby. Girls do not game!" Kuroko exclaims madly hitting her head against her pillow.

"There's nothing wrong with gaming at all Shirai-san." Asuna said. "You should join me and Misaka-san in SAO! That way we don't just need to hang out in the real world, but the virtual world as well."

"I refuse to put such a ridiculous device on my head." Kuroko then looked like she had a light bulb appear above her head. Her face had a devious grin. "Onee-sama, when you are in that virtual world, your body is just lying in this world completely asleep?"

"That's a way to put it. According to the manual our bodies in the real world just stay the way they are left as. The body will then be back to normal when the user logs out of the game world."

"Oooooh excellent~" Drool could be visibly seen from Kuroko's mouth.

It took a second before Mikoto realized what was going on through her roommate's mind.

"YOU SICK WEIRDO! IF YOU DO ANYTHING TO MY BODY, I WILL ELECTROCUTE YOU TO DEATH!" Mikoto's thunderous threat was heard throughout the entire dormitory.

"Hee hee hee. I will be sure to take good care of your body while you are away. Don't worry~" The teleporter had a very dreamy look on her face.

Her dreamy look disappeared when Mikoto threw a Gekota plush at Kuroko's face.

Asuna couldn't help but roll around laughing out loud. Her sides were starting to hurt and some tears were coming out of her eyes.

Life was good right now for Asuna. She was living in a very nice city, had good friends that made sure her live did not have a dull moment, and that she was going to experience being in a game that was all the craze in all of Japan. Nothing looked like it was going to ruin her life.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

When SAO officially was in stores, there were very long lines at Academy City's game stores. Those who managed to get the games were those who camped out for more than one night. All over the news were reports on how quickly SAO was sold out and lots of interviews from people who were really excited to play the game. Luckily Asuna and Mikoto were one of the few people who could afford not to have to wait in line.

With only ten thousand copies available many students were empty handed and decided to wait until the creator of SAO, Kayaba Akihiko, would release out more copies. Those who were lucky enough to obtain the game were over thrilled and most skipped school to get a head start.

However if a student were to miss a day of school at Tokiwadai, they would need an extremely good and legitimate reason. Faking sickness was not possible since there were actual doctors who would check if the student was truly sick or not. This meant that Mikoto and Asuna would have to wait until right after school to play.

Asuna could barely contain her excitement during her class and kept looking at the clock. Every minute that passed by was felt with anxiety, so she was not able to pay attention in class at all.

During breaks and lunchtime, there was a lot of talk about SAO even among the ojou-samas of Tokiwadai. From what Asuna could hear, some girls had actually managed to pre order the game in advance due to their parents' connections. The ladies of this middle school were known for coming from either prestigious or wealthy family backgrounds. Asuna was the daughter of a CEO, so she fit into the classical rich stereotype of Tokiwadai students. She knew that her father's influence would have been enough to get the game pre ordered as well, but her father would have disapproved of her playing some game.

It was finally after school and Asuna was able to rush back to her dormitory and catch up with Mikoto. The two of them went into Mikoto's room and saw Kuroko was not there because the teleporter had Judgment duty today.

"You ready?" Asuna grinned, no longer able to contain her excitement.

"Definitely, I can't believe you got me into the hype of SAO." Mikoto took out the nerve gear and connected it to its proper place. She also took out the package that SAO came in. Asuna and Mikoto received their package first thing in the morning, seeing that it had a premium rush delivery.

"You know how to connect into SAO right?" Asuna asked her friend.

"Of course, I read the manual for Nerve Gear back and forth." Mikoto sat down on her desk chair and then put the helmet over her head. She was now leaning her head on the desk.

"I'll see you in the other world." Mikoto waved bye to Asuna.

The long haired girl then left Mikoto's room to enter into hers. Asuna enters into her room and sees that her roommate was not there and felt at ease. It would have been awkward to explain to her roommate what she was about to do. At least if her roommate found Asuna just lying around with the helmet on, her roommate would have ignored her, as usual.

Asuna does the proper steps to connect SAO to the nerve gear and once it was all done, she leans her head on the desk with the helmet on.

"Link Start."

As soon as she uttered those words, she suddenly felt that her mind was warped into another universe. She saw that the system was making sure that the basic functions such as sound and sight were all OK. After the basic functions were cleared, she created an account name and password. The last thing she had to do was design her avatar and give herself a designated name.

She knew that people preferred not to use their real name in the game world but Asuna decided that she was fine with not having an alias. She did not feel that her avatar should not have any further advancement and decided to just to stick with the default setting of using her real self.

The words **WELCOME TO SWORD ART ONLINE** appeared in front of her eyes. Suddenly she saw that she was going down a long blue passageway was very bright and knew that she was about to enter the world of SAO.

She opens her eyes, blinks a few times and couldn't believe what she saw. Everything around her was like a medieval setting, lots of brick infrastructures and buildings. Asuna looked up and saw a clear beautiful sky full of clouds, it was as if this was reality! She was at awe at the power of virtual reality.

Asuna looked at herself and saw that she had padding on her torso, shoulders and elbows. This was probably the default setting for all beginner players since she saw other players had similar padding she had. Whenever a new player entered into SAO, a blue flame like thing would appear and a person could be seen from it.

Her first objective was to find Mikoto, since the two of them promised to work together in this game. She walks around looking for that particular short haired girl. With ten thousand people here, it would probably be very hard to spot her friend. She was betting Mikoto had arrived before she had.

"Asuna-san!" A familiar voice shouts out.

Asuna turns around towards the source of that shout and sees a familiar short haired girl waving. Mikoto had the type of padding the rest of the players had and she looked like her real self from the real world.

"Misaka-san!" The long haired girl runs towards her friend. "Glad to see you made it here safely."

"Yeah I got here a minute before you did. Everything here looks so real! I can't believe this is just virtual reality." The electromaster looks around like a little child at an amusement park.

"Let's add each other as friends first." Mikoto says as she uses a few fingers on her right hand and touches the air. A window suddenly opens up with a lot of different settings and functions like on a computer. She presses a few things and sends Asuna a friend request.

A notification appeared before Asuna that said _accept friend request from Mikoto_ .There were two options on there, a yes or a no.

"No I don't want to be your friend." Asuna chuckles as she presses the yes button with her index finger. "How did you know about that feature?"

"I read some information from the manual while I was waiting for you to come. As friends we can message and track each other."

"Oh that's great! So does the manual say what we need to do first?"

"Since this place is called Sword Art Online, we should get ourselves a sword first."

Asuna looked through her window settings and saw that there was some money available. The currency in this world was called Col.

"At least we were given some cash to start off. Now let's find a good weapon shop and hope that they won't rip us off."

The two girls wandered through town, seeing a lot of different faces. Groups of friends gathered around with each other, talking excitedly about the game and just hanging out. It looked like most of them were not too eager on getting immediately started on the game but wanted to have fun and enjoy the realm of SAO. Asuna found it amazing how one game could bring together a lot of different people from Japan. It was not just teenagers who were in SAO, but even adults and older generations of people. This showed that everybody was still a kid at heart.

Asuna and Mikoto arrived at a relatively empty weapons shop and were greeted by the shop owner. They looked around at all of the different swords and looked nervous at how the higher grade weapons were more expensive.

"Looks like we need more Col if we want to get better weapons." Mikoto looked over at her friend nervously.

"Y-yeah… let's just buy something we can afford. In any fighting game, I think we have to kill monsters and do quests to get more money."

A while later they both chose had their swords. Mikoto bought a strong broadsword and Asuna chose the rapier. When the two paid the shop owner, they sent to an empty area to practice. The two girls had a difficult time initially getting the hang of swinging a sword but after some repetition they were able to confident in understanding the basics.

"Enough practice today, how about we log out right now and grab something to eat at the dining room. I'm sure the dorm mistress would be displeased if she found us hooked onto the nerve gear." Mikoto breathed heavily, tired from sword practice.

"Yeah sure, I'm starting to actually feel hungry here. I can't wait until the weekend, that way we can go to SAO all day Asuna goes to the main menu and tries to find the log out button. She then has on a frustrated look.

"You know, the game makers should have made it easier for players to find the log out button. It's one of the basic features everybody needs access to."

"You can't find it?" Mikoto looks at her window and tries to find the button as well. "Strange, it must a bug in the system."

_The game makers should not have an error like this on SAO's first day? Didn't they sort out everything during the beta process? _Asuna thought, trying to make logical sense out of this

"I bet we aren't the only ones who noticed this problem." Asuna starts to head back to the main town where most of the players are at.

Before she could take another step, she sees a blue light engulfing her.

"Misaka-san!" Asuna shouts out but her shout is unheard as Mikoto was also engulfed by the blue light.

Asuna sees that she is now in what appears to be the town square. Lots of other players were in the same area as well and many more coming in by the bright blue light. She looks at the faces of those around her and sees the same expression, confusion. If all of the players were gathered in the same area, it was probably because a game maker was going to address the issue of a missing log out button.

Mikoto appears a few seconds later right besides Asuna.

"I think we're going to be alright. I mean the game makers don't want to lose money over such a silly issue right?" Asuna says attempting to reassure herself that everything was going to be alright. Deep down she had a very bad feeling.

"The game would probably have some negative reviews after everybody logs out and reports what happened. That will probably hurt their business." Mikoto says while looking around at the various people that appeared.

"Look up there!" Asuna points to the sky.

Up high there is a red shaped hexagon that says **WARNING**. Suddenly that red shape began to multiply and cover up the entire sky with another message that said **SYSTEM ANNOUNCMENT**

The color red gave a very ominous feel in the atmosphere. Before Asuna knew it, she was shaking.

Everybody was gasped out loud in fear when they saw a giant red cloaked figure appear in the air, the figure's face was fully covered. This felt like an event out of a horror movie.

"Welcome everybody, my name is Kayaba Aikihiko." The red figure announces.

"Isn't that the creator? He's here to tell us good news right?" Asuna was trying to stop her body from shaking but it wouldn't. Perhaps this issue was so urgent the creator was here to fix it.

When Kayaba told everybody that the missing log out button was not a defect, it felt like a bullet that shot Asuna in the head.

_No log out button? Is this guy crazy._

Apparently there was no way to log out of SAO, even if the nerve gear was removed from the user, the user would die. Kayaba then shows to the crowd some reports from the real world about the reported deaths from people who had their loved ones or friends remove their nerve gears. Asuna wanted to believe that this man was bluffing and that this was all a big prank… she wanted to desperately believe that.

The scariest part of Kayaba's message that sent chills down everybody's spine was: if you died in SAO, you die for real.

There was only one way of safely leaving SAO, and it was to clear the game. The objective of the game was to go through each floor, find the boss monster and defeat it to move onto the next floor. There were one hundred floors which meant it take a really long time until somebody defeats the entire game.

When everybody transformed into their real world selves, which was the final straw that made mass chaos ensue.

"We have to get out of here!" Mikoto grabs Asuna's hand, running away from the town square.

It was a smart decision for Mikoto to leave this town since a lot of the shops were being looted and fires occured. This was the phenomena known as mass hysteria and it was becoming very real within SAO.

Asuna ran along with Mikoto and felt really numb. She was trying to find a way to accept the truth, that there was the possibility of staying in this forsaken world for a long time. There was the possibility of her losing her mind…

Worst of all, there was the possibility of losing her life.

**Author's note**: This is my first cross over fanfic, so I hope it was a good read.

There are probably people wondering why Asuna would be a middle school when Wikipedia says that she is 17. Before she went into SAO, she was 15, which makes sense that she is a third year middle school student. Remember that Misaka Mikoto is 14 and that she is a second year student.

If I get enough responses, criticism, comments I'll make my next update soon.

Thanks for reading!


	2. Coping with the Madness

**Author's note:** Just something to tell you readers- this chapter is going to be the opposite of the first chapter. There is going to be extensive explanations and summarization and will not include as much dialogue as the previous one. The point of this chapter is to set a steady foundation for the following chapters. I promise that the next few chapters will be more character based and action packed.

**Chapter 2: Coping with the Madness **

Academy City's top officials were stressed out of their minds due to how a good amount of the city's students were trapped within the SAO game. The students of the city represented a significant asset to the esper development curriculum. The loss of an esper; especially a high level esper was very troublesome.

It was also a panic filled nightmare for even the students not affected by SAO. Families called their children at Academy City making sure they were still in the real world. Whenever a child would not pick up their phone, the parents would always assume the worse. As a result, they would afterwards call the officials of Academy City, screaming their heads off. Sometimes the worst was not always realized because in most cases of unanswered calls, the child either had their cell phone turned on silent the entire day or some other reason.

However for some parents, the horror portrayed on the media became a reality to them. Out of the thousands upon thousands of students that wanted to buy SAO, only five hundred copies were available to Academy City. That meant that there were about five hundred students that were under a deep slumber.

On the first day, five students were already dead because their friends or roommates thought it was safe to remove the nerve gear. Those students were lower leveled espers, so the officials were not too "concerned."

Lots of attention was immediately turned towards Academy City since they were leading the world in scientific advancements. Everybody was expecting Academy City to come up with a quick and safe solution to return back those trapped in the nerve gear, but it was simply not as simple as everybody thought.

The most skilled electromasters, telepaths, and a variety of other espers formed in a group to become the solution. Electromasters were supposed to be skilled in hacking, but the best electricity hacker was unfortunately under the grips of SAO. The first task the city took was taking all of the students under the Nerve Gear and placing them in special hospital facilities. Their brain wave patterns would be monitored constantly, which was data that doctors used to analyze. However their brainwaves did not show any abnormal pattern. There was only the sleeping brain wave pattern that could be seen from the data, which was to be expected since the students were in deep slumber.

Next, level 4 telepaths tried to delve into the minds of the victims but that idea went cold. Whenever a telepath would go into the mind of a victim, there was nothing useful; it was as if they were entering a blank mind.

The technology of Academy City was indeed the best, and one of the main reasons was because of the process of trial and error. With any breakthrough, a copious amount of experimenting was necessary. This was like the drug market, in which drugs were tested on animals. If the animal died then the scientist would note that mistake and try to avoid it. Were the officials really going to do trial and error with this situation? If there were any errors, it would immediately result in death. After all, testing done on humans was already a contentious issue.

They would also need to have a supply of victims to be the test subjects. The officials reached out to the parents of the victims, asking for their permission to use their child for testing methods to bring them back to reality.

It took a while before a few parents consented to the City's request. The parents were forced to sign a waiver, stating that they would not sue the city for money if anything went wrong with their child.

The first child that was experimented on was a fifteen year old boy named Eric. Eric was brought from the hospital to a research facility where lots of different scientists and electromasters were present.

After a careful analysis of the data, scientists decided to leave it up to the electromasters to do whatever they could – that's where things went horribly wrong.

A skilled electromaster approached Eric and tried to hack into his nerve gear with the aid of a few other devices. A split second later the boy's brain showed no activity. He was dead.

Next test subject: a thirteen year old girl named Amii. Another electromaster attempted to disable the Nerve Gear safely. The method failed immediately

The next three trials the researchers decided to opt for a more practical method, teleportation. A high leveled teleporter is capable of teleporting themselves and other objects instantly. This seemed like the next logical solution because if the nerve gear was removed instantly in a split second, then the gear would probably not have enough time to fry the victim's brain. That was the scenario that scientists were hoping would work.

However things looked grim again since every attempt to instantly teleport the nerve gear off the victim's head was still met with death. It seemed that the microsecond the nerve gear was removed from somebody; their brain would still become dead. There seemed to be no probable speed in which the helmet could be removed and not affect a victim's brain. Academy City's top ranked teleporters could not crack this case as well.

Unfortunately here is what scientists concluded after ten trials: When an electromaster or any machine attempted to access the nerve gear, the nerve gear would immediately fry the victim's brain. Any attempt to remove the helmet, no matter how quickly or carefully was met with failure. This was a cruel failsafe Kayaba put in his invention. He was doing whatever it took to make sure that no external methods could revive back those taken by SAO.

After hearing about each failed attempt from Academy City, there were no longer any parents that wished to have their child be part of the experiments. The media and tons of reporters flocked to Academy City, attempting to scoop up any interesting story they could.

They did find an interesting fact that besmirched the good name of Academy City. Apparently the officials only asked the parents of level zero victims to have their child become test subjects. No student who was at least a level one was considered to be part of the experiments. This pretty much showed the message that Academy City "only cared about those who had esper potential".

Once that news came to public ears, there was a reaction of outrage from the media, political leaders, and parents. Quite a few level zero students became very angry and demanded that their parents withdraw them from Academy City's school system.

Nobody knows how that information was leaked out. Rumor has it that some researchers were heavily bribed. Usually Academy City had a way of doing underhanded and sneaky things, but with so much attention on them, they could not afford to be caught with more scandal.

However once they found out that some of the students within the facility were dying on their own, that gave the city a loophole for their experiments. In a highly clandestine fashion, the level zero victims could be taken to a secret facility and be tested on. If that victim died, all that needed to be done was to bring that dead person back to their facility and report that they were "discovered to be dead that day."

This method, though looked like a promising solution of obtaining test subjects, also had major flaws. It would seem awfully suspicious if the only students "found dead" were all level zeroes. The city could have tried to cover its tracks by testing on level ones and above, but those were the valuable assets that they wanted to bring back. There were quite a bit of level threes in the group of victims, but they were definitely off limits. The greatest losses of espers within Academy City were the twenty six level fours and one level five.

Tokiwadai had a total of seven students that fell into the deep slumber. There were actually ten girls who had purchased SAO, but only seven of them used it on the first day it came out. Out of those seven girls, there were four level threes (including Asuna), two level fours, and one level five.

They wanted to make sure there was a 100% way of bringing back the victims before trying to bring back the Railgun. Misaka Mikoto was the only level five that was affected, which was a deep tragedy. She was the person that all the officials wanted back the most for obvious reasons. If it were up to them, they would sacrifice all of the level zeroes just for her sake.

Academy City was already under the hot seat, being accused of structuring an unfair hierarchy of priority for students; in which level zeroes received the least priority. They were now trying to amend their mistakes by heavily compensating the families that agreed to let their children be part of the previous experiments. Unfortunately money cannot always solve issues. Reporters were interested on how many of the victims were level zeroes, ones etc… but that information was heavily classified.

The city was desperately hard at work attempting to repair its reputation. Even though it boasted the best research facilities, all trails lead to a dead end. Kayaba had outsmarted them all.

There were some elite squads consisting tracking type espers sent to hunt down Kayaba. That too had no luck.

Officials were especially angry at how one man was outsmarting the manpower of Academy City. If Kayaba was watching the madness ensuing, he probably would have been grinning with pride.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

-Back to the world of SAO-

Misaka Mikoto and Asuna used some of their Col to stay inside an inn at a relatively quiet town. The two girls made sure to leave the starting town in order to avoid the chaos that ensued there. They knew that without a system of government or control, anarchy was sure to happen.

It was about a week later and they were anticipating any news from the outside world. Mikoto had spent most of her time believing that Academy City would surely find a solution to bring them out of this dreadful nightmare. Surely the city would not just stand and watch as their precious espers were taken away from them. Since she was their valued level five, they were probably doing the best they could. If they did lose her, they lost a significant representative for the city.

Mikoto was not giving up hope at all.

If only Mikoto could have her esper powers with her right now… she was betting that she could use her power to hack into the system and free everybody. The young electromaster definitely had no idea about how Academy City's electromasters failed to stop the Nerve Gear. Every hour when she was awake, she would try to create sparks her hand and the result was always the same… her esper powers definitely did not apply in this world.

One troublesome aspect Mikoto noticed was how Asuna often cried and feel utterly helpless. For the first week Asuna was having a very difficult time accepting the grave reality of the situation. Mikoto had this sense of misery seeing her usually cheerful friend look so down trodden. For that week, Asuna would just stay in bed and wrap herself in a blanket.

Mikoto did the best she could to comfort her friend. The electromaster knew that she could not shed tears, she had to be the strong one. As a level five of Academy City, she had to be the one to pull her act together first.

After the week of misery and unmet hopes, the Railgun approached Asuna and had her sword out.

"Let's go and practice our sword skills. If we are going to stay in this world, might as well adapt to it."

Mikoto was hoping that doing some physical tasks that required a lot of thinking would take their minds off their current predicament.

Asuna just nodded and accessed the window menu to bring out her rapier.

The two girls found an open space and began looking through the manual on the list of skills they would need to practice. Mikoto discovered that there were four types of skill properties: thrust, slash, pierce and blunt. The system would assist the players in these movements but it was up to the player to improve on these skills.

They managed to find a practice target, a boar.

Mikoto kept on trying to chase after the boar swinging her sword ridiculously and trying to do several strikes. However her attempts were not met with good results since the boar was able to dodge her attacks.

"From what I learned before, we have to do the right motion input." Asuna formed stance with her sword. "Activate a sword skill…" Her rapier had a bright green glow. "Then let it out!"

The rapier ran towards the boar with her sword and gave a mighty thrust. Since she went so quickly, the afterimages of the green light from the sword could be visible.

"Amazing…" Mikoto stared as the boar was immediately defeated.

"Now you try!"

Mikoto smiled to herself, seeing Asuna's former liveliness becoming restored. Perhaps sword training was the best mechanism to cope with their situation.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It had been a week since they practiced their sword skills, they were still rusty on it. Mikoto was used to fighting by either throwing her electricity or manipulating it in some unique way or form. Her real world fighting skills gave her an advantage when it came to reacting to dangerous situations in SAO. She also had experience using a sword since she could manipulate iron sand to form the shape of a sword. The main difference between an iron sand sword and her broadsword was that the iron sand felt a lot lighter and that it was capable of changing its shape.

She was able to apply her skills of using an iron sand sword to a regular sword, which made it easier for her to practice and get the hang of things. As a result, she was faster at learning new skills than Asuna. Even though she was faster at learning, Asuna was overall better at executing the skills.

Mikoto and Asuna would help each other out every now and then, teaching each other new tricks or short cuts. It took another week later until the two of them felt confident enough to duel with each other. Their first duel was a timed battle that would last for one minute.

Mikoto and Asuna are neck to neck for the first thirty seconds, dealing equal damage to each other. Mikoto was good on her defense and strong strikes but Asuna dominated with her speed, reaction and retaliation. In the end, it was actually a tie between the two girls.

"Asuna, I never knew you could fight like that." Mikoto nods with approval.

"I've been practicing while you're asleep. Every night I only get about 2 to 3 hours of sleep." Asuna admitted while rubbing the back of her head nervously.

"Such dedication…" Mikoto stared in amazement. "Then again as expected of a senpai, you are supposed to be wiser than me."

"You are definitely amazing too Misaka-san, as expected of Tokiwadai's Ace." Asuna smiled. "If this was a duel back in Academy City I would instantly lose."

"It's because your esper power isn't meant for fighting at all. I am envious of what you can do."

"The grass is always greener on the other side. Your power is way cooler since you use it to fight against thugs."

"Your ability can help more people than I can. Sometimes my classmates are excited to be injured just so they can be healed by you in the nursery. I heard that any types of regenerative esper ability are hard to measure, so you might be stronger than your statistics say."

"I'm not one of the best healers. There are some girls who could fix a person's sprained ankle in less than a minute and that's a task that would take me three minutes minimum."

Bringing up the topic of the real world was something they both avoided for a while, but eventually they were able to become more open about it. Sometimes they would bring up the funny moments they had back at Tokiwadai, most of them including Kuroko's ridiculous shenanigans.

Mikoto could never let go of the guilt of leaving Kuroko back at Academy City. Even though Kuroko was always trying to do something perverted to the young electromaster, Kuroko was a very valued friend and young sister figure. She felt they were definitely like sisters since they had their fair share of bickering and getting on each other's nerves (almost always Kuroko's fault); yet at the same time appreciate each other's company. She couldn't even imagine how much sorrow the teleporter must be feeling, especially discovering Mikoto's sleeping figure that had no hope of being revived.

Mikoto was very glad to be hearing Asuna talking so seriously about SAO instead of mopping around about their terrible reality. If the only way out of here was by clearing all 100 floors, it would probably be a long time until somebody did that. To her, she felt the best way to cope with their situation is by adapting to this world and surviving the best they can. She could see in Asuna's eyes how determined Asuna was to get out of SAO quickly.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Mikoto was naturally observant, so she was able to easily notice the change in her friend's behavior. While Asuna was able to regain her cheerful self, she became more serious at the same time. As every day progressed, Asuna became stronger and faster. Mikoto eventually was falling behind her friend's skills which motivated her to practice more. The Railgun got into the habit of sleeping only 2-3 hours a night as well since she would train alongside with Asuna.

In order to have enough Col for lodge fees and food expenses, the two girls worked together on quests and monster slaying. They agreed to split the amount of Col they got for trading items and to take turns collecting the rare or special objects.

A month later, the two of them became pretty decent sword fighters. Their training scores were able to increase very nicely along with their EXP. Even though constantly repeating the same move over and over again was tedious, it was necessary to increase training scores and the results were always worth the effort.

In one of their duels, a one hit rule; it took about two minutes before Asuna dealt a hit to Mikoto. The long haired girl was only able to hit Mikoto after spending a lot of time trying to find her friend's opening.

"Great job, you're becoming almost as fast as me haha -almost." Asuna pants heavily. "You have such good defense that you're gradually forcing me to have faster sword strikes."

"If you practice some more, you'll probably become the fastest player in SAO." Mikoto slumps to the ground, her back now on the ground. Her eyes were towards the blue skies that had a few puffy clouds.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Mikoto and Asuna were now in the busy town market area, where there were all kinds of NPC shops available for players to purchase items from. It was always bustling at this hour, especially at the restaurants since nobody was really taking the time to develop the cooking skill. The two girls were able to earn enough Col to have sufficient funds for food so they were looking for a place to eat out at. Usually they just bought pieces of bread to eat, but they wanted to do some splurging today.

"There is one strange thing that I've noticed in SAO." Asuna utters.

"What is it?" Mikoto looks at her friend curiously.

"I've hardly seen any girls around here… sometimes I feel like you and me are the only females around."

The Railgun raises her eyes interested.

"That is true. Gaming is more of a guy hobby so I would think that's the reason. Out of all of the players here, there's probably only been one or two occasions when I saw another girl around."

"I guess it's an interesting change in atmosphere. Coming from Tokiwadai, you and I are accustomed to a setting full of females... especially at the School Garden."

"Don't tell me you're going to become boy crazy now." Mikoto chuckles.

"No-no way! I don't casually like just any guy. I have high standards!" Asuna defends herself.

"With your looks, you'll have an easy time stealing the hearts of men."

_Your chest size also helps too_ - Was something else Mikoto wanted to say, but decided it was best to be unsaid.

"You've never brought up the topic of boys before…" Asuna has a wide grin as if she had something big on her mind. "Do you have interesting guy in your life so far? I bet Tokiwadai's Ace should have no problem with the boys back at Academy City."

"Because of my status people are sometimes afraid of me, and to answer your question: no I have not met any guy who has caught my interest." Suddenly an image of a certain spikey haired boy popped into her mind. Mikoto gave a small yelp when she thought about him and her cheeks turned a faint pink shade.

Asuna notices the sudden change in composure from the electromaster and grins even wider.

"So you do have somebody special? Is there a secret love interest back at Academy City?"

"I-It's not like that at all!" Mikoto awkwardly smiled. A sweat drop escaped from her forehead.

"Don't lie to your senpai. So tell me about him."

"There is no him, no guy at all!" If this was back in Academy City, electrical sparks would be appearing around the electromaster.

"Fine fine, I'll find out the truth one way or another." Asuna winks.

The two girls found a small café and sat outdoors. They ordered relatively cheap items such as tea and sandwiches.

Asuna was sipping her tea and suddenly her ears pick up some interesting talk at the nearby café tables.

"Oh my goodness, there's girls here! It's been so long since I've seen such cute ones."

"If I had to choose one, I would go for the long haired beauty."

"What about the short haired girl?"

"She's cute, but no as beautiful as her friend."

"We should invite them to party with us."

Asuna smirks amused.

"You don't seem annoyed how those idiots are talking to us like that?" Mikoto looked irritated. "They're talking as if we're pieces of meat."

"Believe it or not, I had this type of attention back at my old middle school. Every time I would walk down the hallway or be spotted outside of school, the guys around me would whisper things about me."

The Railgun raised her eyes in interested hearing about this. She did not know too much about Asuna's past since she felt it would be too personal of a topic to bring up.

"At one point it did get annoying when I realized that any guy who wanted to become friends with me always had ulterior motives." Asuna sighed. "The girls didn't like me since I was always attracting so much attention from the boys and teachers. It was a bit of a difficult time of my life… I was very lucky to be able to transfer into Tokiwadai, especially since the exams for transferring students are harder than the ones for incoming first years."

Mikoto was shocked to hear how Asuna truly felt lonely back at her old school. She assumed that Asuna was a popular person back at her old school and the main reason for her transfer was to develop her esper power.

"Thank goodness SAO has a very strict punishment for those who try to harass other members. I'll be sure to look out for you as well." Mikoto gave Asuna an assured smile.

"I'm supposed to be the one looking after my kouhai, not the other way around."

Mikoto looks around and sees that there really was a majority of males around. Some of the males passing by took a split second or so to stare at the two girls sitting at the café.

After they were done, Mikoto and Asuna decided to head to the town square to discuss with other players how they were going to take down the first floor boss. They both bought some hooded capes to put on themselves. Mikoto was not sure why Asuna suggested they buy the hoods but she hypothesized a reason – because if the two of them chickened out from the boss raid mission, nobody would be able to recall their faces.

At the meeting Mikoto and Asuna were definitely the only females present.

"Thank you for coming here everybody!" A voice boomed out. The one speaking was a blue haired male who was wearing bronze armor, carried a long sword on his waist and a shield on his back.

"I am Diabel and I consider my profession to be Knight!"

A few chuckles came from the audience. Mikoto knew there was no job class that existed in SAO.

Diabel was able to captivate everybody with his enthusiasm. It seemed he was either experienced with public speaking or was just a natural.

"We have to show everybody that this death game can be cleared! Just recently my party and I found the boss room and the boss's name is llfang the Kobold Lord."

This comment with met with cheers and claps. Diabel certainly knew how to motivate others with his words. While the blue haired knight was speaking, he was interrupted by a cactus headed male named Kibaou.

Kibaou immediately began his introduction by complaining how Beta testers should give up their items because they are lowly cheaters. Some voices in the crowd were agreeing with Kibaou's words but Mikoto felt disgusted by the cactus head's accusations.

She clenched her fists tightly.

_It's not like they those Beta testers have to take care of us. Even if they know all of the shortcuts do not make them at all responsible for anybody's death._

Fortunately an axe user name Agil was able to stop Kibaou ranting and let Diabel speak again. Diabel took out the player's guide and began discussing the characteristics of the boss such as how 12 sentinels appear when one of the boss' four HP bars is depleted.

Hearing about how that information came from beta testers, Mikoto felt that she could hold no grudge against them.

"Now start forming parties everybody. A party can be up to six members." The blue haired knight announces.

Mikoto looked at the crowd and mentally counted how many people there were. It looked like there would be one party with only three members which most likely was going to include her and Asuna. A dark haired boy scooted over towards Mikoto and Asuna.

"So you two got left out too?" Was the first thing he said to the pair of girls.

"It's just that everybody else knows each other…" Asuna replies. However the long haired girl said that without the usual warmth in her voice- which Mikoto found odd.

"How about the three of us form a party?"

The boy sent the party invitation to the two girls and they accepted. After Mikoto pressed 'OK' she could see two small HP bars appear on the side of her visual screen. Under each HP bar was a name. There was ASUNA and the second one belonged to the boy named KIRITO.

Diabel assigned the other six member parties their task and finally got to the three member party. Mikoto's party was only to make sure that none of the sentinels remained, in other words – they were told that they were not needed to take part in the boss fight.

Mikoto felt a bit irritated at what their blue haired leader told them but she decided to accept what was assigned. If Diabel knew of Asuna's true strength he would have definitely reconsidered their assigned task.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Switch!" Kirito shouted out.

Asuna complied with his request and jumped back, letting Kirito rush forward and take down the sentinel. Mikoto was occupied with fighting against another sentinel monster. She uses her broadsword to block against the monster's attack and pushes against it, making the monster falter back.

Mikoto jumps backwards and Asuna charges forward, replacing Mikoto's position. The concept of switch was explained by Kirito earlier. The two girls were clearly clueless about MMO games but Kirito was patient with them. This was the first time she and Asuna interacted with a guy within SAO and thankfully he was a helpful one.

While the black haired boy was fighting against his opponent, Mikoto watched in awe at his abilities. His strikes, blocks, and reaction speed were really impressive. His skills suggested that he has been devoted to fighting against the monsters on the frontlines.

"Switch!" The boy calls out to Mikoto.

Mikoto is able to take advantage of how Kirito was able to throw off the sentinel's balance and finds an opening. She activates the slant sword skill and her sword begins to glow a bright blue. The system was now guiding her maneuver, allowing her to defeat her target easily. The point of switching was to confuse the enemy about its opponents' timing.

Meanwhile Diabel was able to give orders to the rest of the parties, telling them when exactly they should switch or block. He was definitely prepared and his orders were effective. Mikoto was wondering how the blue haired knight was able to know so much about the Kobold Lord's attack algorithm and timing. Was he that perceptive on the boss's abilities?

Eventually all of the sentinels were wiped out thanks to Mikoto, Asuna and Kirito and about the same time, the boss's HP bar went to the red zone.

Mikoto remembered how Diabel mentioned when the HP of the Kobold Lord goes to the red zone, the boss relinquishes its large axe and takes out a talwar. She was not familiar with weapons so she no idea what a talwar really looks like.

The plan now was to take down the boss as a team but suddenly she hears Diabel telling everybody to stay put as he rushes towards the boss. The Kobold Lord was a huge and hulking monster. Its red eyes looked like it could send chills down everybody's back and its menacing sharp teeth were even more frightening.

Mikoto couldn't help but wonder – why was Diabel deviating from their original plan?

She takes a quick glance around the boss room and her attention is immediately caught by Kirito's look of pure horror. It was as if he saw a ghost.

Why was the calm Kirito now so agitated? Mikoto was starting to feel worried as well.

"Jump back as far as you can!" The black haired boy shouts out, but it was clear Diabel did not hear what was shouted.

Just as Diabel was about to perform a sword skill, the Kobold Lord jumps up, bouncing off the pillars in the room and rockets towards Diabel with a strike of its sharp weapon. Diabel flies out of the way like a rag doll after boss hits him again.

Mikoto gasped at the horrible scene that she just witnessed. She felt her body shaking uncontrollably. After all of the extensive planning done, why was the leader suddenly taken down? Mikoto gripped harder onto her sword and tried to calm her nerves down. This was not the first time she was in the face of danger, but at least back at reality she had the ability of a powerful level five. The current situation was much different because she lacked her electromaster ability and she never had to face against a fearsome monster.

_I have to continue onwards. Even if I don't have my Railgun anymore that doesn't mean I am completely helpless. It's not my power that makes me strong, it's my confidence and will. My power in this world comes from my sword. My sword is my only way of ever getting out of this world and protecting those I care about._

When Mikoto was able to gather her strength again, she notices Kirito and Asuna charging forth towards the Kobold Lord. The short haired girl stood watching the two of them working together like a well-oiled machine. The timings for their switches were effective in damaging the boss' HP.

Asuna's hooded cape got ripped when she was able to barely dodge the boss's attack. Mikoto was thankful that Kirito was able to warn Asuna just in time.

The Railgun looks around the room and some tell how some of the males were entranced by her beauty.

The timings for their switches were effective in damaging the boss' HP.

However the boss had the upper hand when it was able to knock back Kirito and Asuna. Mikoto was about to jump in to counter the boss's strike upon her two party members but Agil beat her to it.

Mikoto along with the other parties surrounded the boss, attempting to hack at it. However the boss was able to overwhelm everybody's attacks.

At the right timing, Kirito intervenes in. His sword shines a bright color and he continues his fight with the fearsome monster. His fast paced sword strikes were incredibly effective. Soon the boss is thrown to the ground and Kirito calls for Asuna to help him finish off the monster. The duo continues with their magnificent teamwork as shown earlier. Kirito's war cry clearly resounds while he deals the final strike against the gigantic boss. The boss's body breaks into a thousand polygons, which meant the fight was over.

All of the party members begin cheering out loud as soon as the CONGRATULATIONS was displayed. Agil, Asuna and Mikoto approached the panting Kirito to congratulate him.

"You were amazing." Mikoto smiles. "Thank you so much for your hard work."

"Er yeah no problem…" Kirito nods.

However the happy atmosphere was over when Kibaou began accusing Kirito of knowing all of the boss techniques. That meant one thing: Kirito was a beta tester. Soon enough the 'hang the beta testers' attitude came back in the group.

Everybody began staring at each other suspiciously, wondering if there were any other hidden beta testers among them.

A cackle broke out from an individual. Everybody turned their attention towards that individual, discovering that it was Kirito. Kirito's demeanor had completely transformed. He had a dark aura around him and spoke in an ominous fashion.

"That's right, I'm a beater." Kirito said a frightening manner that made everybody clear out of his way.

Mikoto was shocked. How could somebody as helpful as Kirito be a cheating beta tester? She was not resentful towards his beta experience.

She was wondering why he would declare himself a beater so proudly in front of everybody.

The entire room became eerily silent while Kirito approached the large doorways to the second floor. Asuna ran after the boy and stopped him and a minute later Kirito departed everybody.

Mikoto goes over to Asuna's side.

"I really don't think he's a bad guy at all…" The long haired girl said softly, staring at the doorway that was just opened

"Exactly what I was thinking." Mikoto stares in the same direction Asuna was. The Railgun wondered if they wound run into that black coated swordsman in the near future.

**Author's note:** I hope the first part of the story wasn't a complete snore fest since it was just full of explanations. Thank you very much for the reviews, especially those that gave constructive criticism, I am doing my best to address your concerns. To those who still believe that Academy City can easily find a way to revive the Nerve Gear victims – what fun would it be if there was such an easy solution? Remember in fanfiction, anything can happen.

You probably noticed that this chapter was in Mikoto's perspective compared to how the first chapter was in Asuna's POV. I thought it seemed like an interesting idea just to switch up the perspectives every now and then. The author of the SAO light novels does that pretty often.

Future chapters won't be entirely correlating with the anime. Since this is a crossover story, I'll be putting some creative adventures in between such as describing what occurs in the floors not elaborated in the anime.


	3. Fighting Onwards

**Author's note**: Everybody is wondering when Touma is going to appear in the story. I am also excited to include him but his appearance will come later.

**Chapter Three**: Fighting Onwards

After finding her strength in sword fighting, Asuna was able to build a passionate fire within her very being.

She recalled the miserable state she was in during the first week of SAO. She simply stayed in bed and tried to close her eyes, hoping to wake up and realize that this was all a bad dream. No matter how times she opened her eyes, she was always hoping that she would be back in her dorm room or even asleep on a bench back in Academy City. In reality this was all a living nightmare, one that they could not escape out of. Every now and then she put a pillow over her face and just screamed as loudly as she could. After every scream she would have tears pouring out of her eyes.

It was thanks to Mikoto that she was able to become motivated to find a way to survive in this forsaken world. Asuna's skill was forged through her die hard dedication and hard work. She began devoting her time to improving her speed, steadily increasing the speed of her rapier every day.

The rapier was meant to be a swift weapon, specializing in thrusts. The first rapier technique she learned was called linear, which was a basic forward thrust. She became so good at executing linear that her blade strikes were not visible to the naked eye.

However Asuna was not the only one getting stronger. She could see the progress in Mikoto's sword skills.

The two girls were now sparring against each other, bare handed style. On a previous floor, the two of them were able to gain the Marital Arts extra skill after completing an NPC's request. Even though they would be mostly relying on their swords for combat, it couldn't hurt to learn how to fight without them.

Tokiwadai Middle School was able to provide a close combat course for its students, so the two girls had at least a background in martial arts. However Asuna knew she was at a disadvantage against Academy City's famous Railgun. Even if Mikoto was not capable of throwing lightning in SAO, she still had far more real life experience in fights than Asuna.

Asuna and Mikoto have a timed duel of one minute set up. They were practicing outside of the town area at the grassland. There were no monsters and hardly any players around to disturb them.

The match commences once the starting clock hits zero and the two girls take off.

Asuna accelerates her right hand, going in for a right hook. Her fist becomes a purple bright color as it was being supported by the system. Marital arts in SAO was similar to sword fighting since one just needed to access the skill's technique and the system would help the body execute the technique.

However just before Asuna thought her hook attack was successful, Mikoto ducks down. The Railgun shifts her weight and momentum forward and retaliates with an elbow strike that glows a bright yellow. The elbow strike ends up hitting Asuna in the gut, sending the long haired girl flying back a few feet.

"Y-you're really strong Misaka-san." Asuna was thankful that pain could not be felt in SAO.

"My senses are sharper because I am accustomed in having to fend off Kuroko's constant love attacks. Thanks to that pervert my skills and reflexes have become a lot better." Mikoto grinned proudly.

Asuna can't help but laugh hearing Mikoto say that. She knew that Kuroko was very open about expressing affection for Mikoto and was always amused by the relationship between the two roommates.

Mikoto charges forth with a jump front kick which Asuna barely blocks by forming a cross with her two forearms. However the kick's impact sent shockwaves throughout Asuna's body.

After that, Mikoto's fist is charged up as an uppercut was sent straight for Asuna. Asuna barely leans her upper body back to avoid the strike. The long haired girl retaliates back by sending a swarm of jabs towards her friend's direction. Asuna found out that she had decent speed when executing techniques that had a lot of forward thrusts. Perhaps it was because it was like using the linear skill with her rapier.

Mikoto did the best she could to block or avoid the jabs. Mikoto gained the upper hand when she was able to grab onto one of Asuna's outstretched wrists and pulls Asuna forward towards Mikoto's center of gravity, sending up a knee strike at Asuna's mid-section.

Asuna felt the wind get knocked out of her body.

"Y-you're too good at hand to hand combat compared to me…"

"When you live with a perverted roommate, you learn to fight better."

When the minute was over, Mikoto was the winner of the duel.

Every day they would train together or go out farming for monsters. Their goal was to assist the frontlines and do whatever they could to get everybody out of SAO as quickly as possible.

Asuna had those moments when she felt distressed about all of the time she was missing back in the real world. She would think about how much she is behind on her schoolwork or even the different opportunities that were now gone. Her reasoning was – the stronger she became, the faster she could go back to reality and resume her normal life. Every moment spent in SAO was a moment that was wasted back in the real world.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

-A few months later-

_Floor 15: The Taiga Forest _

"Geez this place is cold…" Asuna was shivering.

"It doesn't even get this cold back at Academy City." Mikoto put her arms together.

The two girls decided to head to the frontlines after being confident in their levels. According to the SAO newsletter that is freely distributed to players, the leading group was able to defeat the fourteenth floor boss just a day ago. Mikoto was a level 27 and Asuna was now a level 26 after fulfilling numerous quests. They also explored the dungeons of the previous floors, killing many monsters. With the amount of Col they earned, the two girls were able to purchase suitable armor and better swords. Asuna decided to stick with the swift rapier and Mikoto decided to use the power type broadsword.

The Taiga stage was a naturally cold atmosphere with snow on the ground and all over the fir trees. The cold air blew past the two girls, making them shiver even more. The teleportation gate led them to a town where there was a visible NPC shop nearby selling coats. Asuna and Mikoto ran towards the shop and immediately purchased warm, wooly and comfortable coats to alleviate the coldness.

The town resembled a ski resort in which there were log cabin types of infrastructures for the businesses and inns. Snow was everywhere and continuously falling to the ground.

Asuna and Mikoto could see some groups of people in this town area, perhaps they were the frontline guilds. There weren't any guilds that were too large or well known at the moment. Only a small percentage of the guilds were active on the frontlines while most other guilds stayed on previous floors.

Asuna saw guilds as effective means of teamwork and protection but there were the risk and reward tradeoffs to consider. She and Mikoto were not sure if they were ready to join a guild yet…the words of Kirito the black swordsman resounded in her mind: _"if one day someone you trust invites you to a guild, don't you refuse."_

Right now there wasn't too much of a need to join a guild because Asuna wasn't alone in this world, she had a reliable friend with her.

After wandering around the town, they were able to find an NPC's request to fulfill.

The quest was called "Aiding the Black Smith"

The NPC black smith's shop was smaller than the other nearby shops but had a lot of weapons offered. On the right side of the shop were swords adorned on the wall, though the swords were out of the girl's price range. On the left side were shields of different shapes and sizes along with other non-sword weapons.

The NPC that gave them the request was a strong looking man. The NPC wanted the two girls to venture through the forest and go to Kyber Lake, the largest lake located in the middle of this floor. To fulfill the quest, one needed to challenge the monster of the lake.

Once the monster was defeated, it would leave behind a metal that the NPC desired. The reward for finishing the request was actually a mystery, but the two girls decided to embark on the journey.

They knew that the trip through the forest would be dangerous, especially since there were always monsters lurking outside of Aincrad's towns. The two girls also had to make sure not to stay out too late since the temperature got coldest at nighttime.

"We are so getting some hot chocolate once we finish this request." Mikoto murmurs.

"Haha agreed." Asuna smirks.

With their winter gear on they set out of the town and went towards the forest.

The types of trees in a Taiga biome were coniferous, which meant that they were the types that had pine cones and the ones most people got for the Christmas holidays. One positive aspect of SAO is that players still celebrated holidays. During the New Year's, there were some parties that happened in restaurants and in some of the inns. The celebrated holidays were one of the few joyous times one could experience while in this virtual reality death game.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

While on their quest, the two girls were suddenly surrounded by a group of bobcats. These bobcats looked even scary with their glowing red eyes.

Asuna and Mikoto were now back to back to each other, facing towards the bobcats.

"If things go bad use your teleportation crystal." Mikoto utters lowly.

"I don't plan to have the situation get bad." Asuna grins confidently.

The bob cats leap towards the two girls who had their swords out.

Asuna uses the rapier sword skill linear to take out the bobcats that were attacking her. The long haired girl was confident about how her sword strikes were becoming faster and faster.

Mikoto activates the skill vertical arc, in which she slashes twice, creating a V shape.

The two Tokiwadai girls continue to maintain their back to back position, covering each other. The strength, reaction speed and execution of their techniques allowed them to take out each bobcat in one hit. It wasn't long until the entire group of the cats was eliminated.

Asuna was panting and could feel her partner panting as well. The two girls looked at each other with a satisfied smile, glad that they had each other's backs.

Luckily trouble did not approach them for a while so they decided to stop for a lunch break. They sat under a large tree, backs leaning against the trunk.

Asuna pulls out two pieces of bread and hands one to Mikoto.

"You know… I've always wanted to have cooking be one of my skills here." Asuna chimes.

"Cooking? That's a strange noncombat skill to have." Mikoto gives her friend a strange look.

"I promise if I can cook well, I will surely let you try my food."

"As long as your cooking is better than this bread I will accept your offer."

"We all need a hobby aside from fighting and exploring dungeons. Why don't you join me? It'll be fun if the two of us can cook together."

"I'll think about it. I never did learn to cook correctly in the first place."

The bread tasted like the regular bread back in reality. In SAO, a player did not have to eat three meals a day but most people decided to stick to that habit. One piece of bread a day was good enough for a player to have enough energy.

"Did you ever try to cook before?" Asuna asks.

"Well…" Mikoto takes a second to recall the occasion. "One time I wanted to make some cookies as a way to say thank you to this certain guy. Unfortunately I couldn't summon up the courage to actually give it to him." The Railgun sighs. "I worked so hard on making those cookies!"

"So… you were trying to make cookies for a guy?" Asuna grins widely while resisting a chuckle. "It must be very special guy if you went through all of that trouble."

"N-no way is that guy special to me! I just wanted to show some gratitude for his help." Mikoto averts her eyes away; her pinks are a faint pink.

The two girls continued to converse while eating their bread. Asuna thought that if she learned how to cook, they could be eating something tastier like homemade sandwiches.

Asuna did not want to stick to eating the same food everyday which is why she wanted to learn how to cook in this world. Perhaps her cooking skill would be useful in the future.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"The NPC said that in order to call for the monster of the lake, we need to merely throw something into the water." Asuna points out.

In the middle of the fifteenth floor was a large lake had a half frozen surface. The two girls were at the lake's edge and staring into the water. The water was a beautiful blue color with a thin layer of ice above it.

Mikoto finds a pebble on the ground "Let's hope this works." She tosses it high in the air.

Once the pebble was tossed into the water, a splash could be heard. They waited for a few seconds before anything happened.

C-C-RACKKK!

Suddenly a large creature broke forth from the water's surface. The two girls could see that it is a monster with a long neck, sharp teeth and four flippers. It was the very famous loch ness monster.

"Isn't that creature supposed to be in Scotland?!" Mikoto exclaims.

Asuna and her friend stare at the creature in disbelief and a second later regain their fighting composure. Aincrad's creative monster designs never ceased to amaze them.

The loch ness monster emerges from the water and swims towards land. The creature was the size of a house. Even if it wasn't the level of a floor boss, this still meant the two girls couldn't let their guards down.

The monster reaches its long neck out, aiming to bite at Mikoto. Fortunately the Railgun was able to jump to the side to barely avoid the bite. While the monster's head was a few feet in front of her, Mikoto executes a slash skill that dents the monster's HP. The loch ness creature recoils its neck back, roaring in pain.

"Switch!" Asuna shouts. The long haired girl jumps into action by going towards the monster with multiple linear strikes.

With the ground being so slippery, the loch ness was able to use its flippers to slide against the ground and charges head on into Mikoto. Asuna came to her friend's rescue by running towards the monster's main body and does a Vertical Arc skill, which are 2 strikes that create a V shape trajectory.

Now the monster turns its head, changing direction of its target which was now Asuna. The monster turns its neck and head back, now going down for a bite attack. Asuna was prepared to counter with a slash to its head but the monster's neck was struck at by Mikoto. Mikoto took advantage of how the monster was not paying attention to her and decided to attack when it had its back turned.

The two girls looked at each other, giving a short nod. Asuna understood what she was supposed to do. Asuna and Mikoto would switch the roles of who gets the monster's attention and who attacks it at the side. This method of constant switching made the monster confused on which target to concentrate mostly on.

The loch ness monster was definitely not as difficult as dungeon monsters. Dungeon monsters usually wielded weapons, but the loch ness had no physical weapon.

In a short amount of time, the final blow was dealt to the monster and it disappeared into a thousand polygons. In the wake of its defeat were a few drop items including the black metal chunk. Asuna checks out the metal and sees that it is called Melast.

"That reward better be something good." Mikoto mutters while examining the monster drop items.

"Even if isn't, we still earned Col and EXP taking down that monster."

They were now walking through the forest part again. During the trip they ran through a few more bobcats and wolves, but those animals were easily taken care of.

_The metal must have been rare since it was a drop item from a monster, meaning that the NPC's rewards should be interesting. _Asuna mentally noted.

They return to where the NPC's shop was located at and hand him the Melast metal.

The NPC nods pleased. "With the request completed, here are your choices in rewards."

The NPC reveals the two girls a set of items. There were a few potions, a mace and a shield.

The difference between an NPC blacksmith and a real player blacksmith was that player blacksmiths could be bargained with and their quality of work depended on their weapon making stats. If a player blacksmith's level of metal work was high enough, that meant they could easily produce better weapons than a regular NPC.

"Hm… I'll choose the potions because we need some healing ones." Asuna said.

The NPC gives Asuna the set of potions and she places them in her inventory.

Asuna notices the Railgun's eyes were captivated by the shield.

Overall the shield was noteworthy since its material looked better than the other shields players had. It was shaped like any knight's shield and colored in blue. The blue color resembled the color of lightning.

"How good is the shield?" Mikoto asks the NPC

"Best shield I've ever made. It was forged out of a very durable metal." The NPC responds.

The short haired girl examines the shield once more and checks out its statistics. Asuna looks over and sees that the shield had rather impressive numbers. A smile escapes from the Railgun's lips.

"I'll take it." Mikoto collects the shield and it disappears.

"One of the most convenient parts about life here is that everything is automatically digitized. There's no need to physically store items at all." Asuna comments.

They head out of the NPC's shop, content with their rewards. Asuna considered choosing the shield earlier but it would have clashed with her fighting style. She felt glad knowing that her closest ally now possessed an effective defense weapon.

"It's been sort of a long day, let's head find an inn and call it a night." Mikoto yawns.

The daylight within the fifteenth floor was slowly but surely disappearing. When it was nighttime, the two girls found an inn to stay at and were examining their inventory.

"Before we head to the dungeon tomorrow, I really want to try out my shield." Mikoto's left arm was holding onto the blue shield. She was continuously lifting the shield up and down, getting used to its weight.

"I'll be glad to help you test it out. Though having a shield means you can't focus too much on speed." Asuna points out.

"I know I'll never be as fast as you." The Railgun smirks. "A good defense does make for a good offense."

"I'm counting on you to take all of the hits from the monsters and bosses."

"Hey! I am not going to let you take advantage of me like that!"

Mikoto and Asuna burst out laughing.

The two continued to talk for another half an hour before they decided to call it a night and sleep.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

In the early hours of the morning Mikoto was able to use her shield in a spar against Asuna. The two girls were within the town's parameters, which meant that they could not hurt each other's HP. After an hour of practice Mikoto was able to get the hang of using her shield. Asuna was impressed how quickly Mikoto was able to incorporate a shield in her sword style. Once they ate a piece of bread for breakfast, they headed out to the dungeon.

While going through the forest, they faced some more animals that were easily defeated. Mikoto and Asuna were able to level up after going against some higher leveled bobcats.

They found the dungeon's entrance and opened its massive doors to enter inside. The dungeon had a literally cold atmosphere.

The ground was with frost and the cold winds were blowing. However the two girls were not fazed by chilly atmosphere because they were wearing cold resistant coats.

10 minutes while exploring, they were met with a bipedal bear with an axe. The bear had on shoulder guards and a helmet but its chest was fully exposed.

The bear warrior immediately rushes towards Asuna and Mikoto with a swing of its two handed axe.

"I'll handle it first!"

Mikoto grins as she goes forward and ducks the axe swipe. She has out her trusty broadsword and new shield. Asuna steps back and watches as her friend handles the monster.

The bear goes in for another axe swipe but Mikoto manages to guard against it with her shield. Much to Asuna's surprise, Mikoto was able to use her shield to press forth against the axe and make the bear lose its balanced stance. Asuna knew that Mikoto had a higher strength stat but she was still amazed at her friend's ability to adapt fighting with a shield.

The bear left an opening which Mikoto took full advantage of by performing several quick slashes. While Asuna's sword style was based on fast paced thrusts, Mikoto relied on powerful slashes.

The bear roars out angrily as it was attacked and its axe turns a yellow color. The axe is sent towards Mikoto's side. The Railgun pivots her body so that her shield is able to block the incoming axe.

"Now!" Mikoto shouts out.

Asuna charges forth and her rapier's blade was glowing green. She runs behind Mikoto and jumps up on Mikoto's shoulders. Asuna uses the shoulders as a spring board to leap forth and send the two rapier thrusts in the bear's two eyes.

The bear groans out in pain and begins to swing its axe around madly. Asuna now was the bear's target.

Mikoto moved back, now letting Asuna handle the situation.

Asuna crouches to the ground as she lands from her jump and aims a few more lightning fast linear thrusts at the bear's legs. From the looks on the bear's HP bar, it would not last any longer. The bear was now backing off as its eyes have not recovered at all yet.

"Mikoto finish it off!"

Asuna jumps back and Mikoto goes ahead with her shield forward. The shield was used to block and divert the bear's axe leaving the bear wide open for attack. Mikoto's broadsword glowed and she did several slashes that formed an X on the bear's chest. A few seconds later the bear disintegrates into pieces.

The teamwork between the two girls has shown remarkable improvement after each floor they conquered.

During their time traveling through the vast dungeon labyrinth, they were able to create a map of the area. Since this was their first time fighting on the frontlines, this meant that their map would be extremely valuable for the clearing guilds.

"If we sell our map, we could make a lot of Col." Mikoto mutters while her eyes scan the area.

"We don't necessarily need more money right now. This feels so exciting to explore uncharted territory."

A while later they felt that they already mapped as much as they could for the day. They were now going to head back to the inn to rest and come up with ways to further improve their teamwork.

The different types of monsters they encountered while in the dungeons resembled the types of animals one would find within an actual taiga biome. One of the difficult monsters they faced against so far were the white coated bipedal wolves that could camouflage with the snow and ambush any players. Mikoto's high detection skill allowed her to spot the wolves before they could make the initial attack.

They made it outside the dungeon and were walking through the cold forest. It was right now a very quiet trip since they did not encounter any monsters.

"I think we might sooner or later feel the limitations of being a two member party." Asuna admits.

"So far we're managing just fine." Mikoto says. "It's not like we're solo players who face the constant danger of being overwhelmed by monsters. Those who solo at least don't have to worry about splitting up monster items."

"Are you saying that it's a pain to split the rewards?" The long haired girl gives an amused grin.

"Possibly…"

They looked at each other and let out a small chuckle.

Asuna was confident in hers and Mikoto's strength but felt scared about the increasing risks that would be inevitable at the upper floors. She was starting to see the benefits of joining a guild because they would be protected and supported by more comrades.

"AHHHH!"

As they were halfway to the town, a scream pervaded the air. It was no mistake that the scream belonged to a female.

Mikoto and Asuna acted without a second's thought. They bravely ran towards the direction of the scream. Surely somebody wouldn't come into the forest alone unless they were really strong.

They ran through some thick bushes and trees and saw the scene before them.

A girl was frantically trying to fight against a pack of wolves. She looked like she was overwhelmed.

There were eight wolves present, which was definitely difficult for just one person to tackle head on. Just as a wolf was about to pounce on the girl, Mikoto immediately jumps in and uses her shield to block the wolf's path. The wolf was pushed back by the shield's sheer force.

Asuna uses the technique Rage Spike as well as a combination of linear strikes upon the wolves.

Because the two girls intervened in so abruptly, the wolves were surprised and had little time to react or defend themselves.

"Leave it to us!" Mikoto shouts out.

A few minutes later Mikoto and Asuna finish off the wolves with hardly any trouble.

They put their swords back into their respective sheathes and look towards the person that was in distress.

"Hey are you alright?" Asuna asks the girl.

"Y-yeah I am… thank you so much for rescuing me."

Asuna looks at the girl and feels that this person was a familiar face.

"Oh my goodness!" The girl nearly falls backwards in surprise. She points a finger at Mikoto. "It's the Railgun!"

"You just called me Railgun? Does that mean you're from Academy City?" Mikoto looks at the girl with a surprised expression as well.

"Y-yes I am!"

"Wait I recognize you." Asuna smiles. "You go to Tokiwadai right?"

"Uh huh! You certainly deserve to be called the beauty of Tokiwadai." The girl beams at Asuna.

Asuna blushes at the compliment.

"Ooohh you do look familiar. It certainly has been a while since anybody called me Railgun. What's your name?" The Railgun looks at the Tokiwadai student.

"My name is Venus and it is such an honor to meet two of Tokiwadai's outstanding students."

Venus was a gray eyed girl with shoulder length curly blonde hair. She had on a dark green cold resistant jacket, boots and was equipped with a sword.

"We never thought we would meet anybody else from Academy City or even Tokiwadai." Mikoto utters.

"What were you doing out here by yourself? Soloing can be pretty dangerous." Asuna chimes in.

"Yeah I'm a solo player. I was fine for the previous floors but then I underestimated my opponent. I guess soloing has its limits because I get tired just fighting one after the other." Venus says sheepishly.

"It would have been even more dangerous if you headed to the dungeon. We managed to map it out but there's still some more left of it to explore." The Railgun notes.

"You two managed to make it to the dungeon and survived? That's pretty amazing!" Venus' eyes light up even more. "There are guilds that have a tough time going in there."

"Why not party with us? The more people we have, the safer we can be." Asuna suggests while giving a friendly smile.

"R-really?" The gray eyed girl was speechless by the offer.

"Academy City and Tokiwadai students should stick together." Mikoto smirks.

"Y-yeah you're right." Venus nods happily.

Asuna sends Venus a party request and Venus accepts it.

"Let's head back to town and grab something warm to eat and drink." Asuna yawns since she was feeling tired.

On the way to the town, the two girls were able to get to know their third comrade better.

Venus' choice of sword was a sabre. A sabre had a handle like a rapier but its lower part was curved. She was a level 3 esper who had the ability to create ice at will. She was also a second year like Mikoto and was one of the few lucky or rather _unlucky_ individuals from Academy City who managed to pre order the game.

They reached the inn and managed to get along just fine. The three of them were able to find comfort in discussing their former lives back in Academy City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next day they decided to practice with each other in one of the empty parts of the town. While they were in the town area, none of them were in any danger of depleting their health. If one was struck with a sword while in town, there would only be a knock back effect.

Mikoto takes out her broadsword and shield while Venus was equipped with her sabre. The sabre was nearly half a foot longer than Mikoto's broadsword.

Venus charges for towards Mikoto with a slash combo but Mikoto puts her shield forward to defend against the attacks.

Asuna watches the two at the sidelines and makes mental observations of their spar. She noticed that the sabre's main advantage was in its extended length because Venus was able to attempt more strikes upon Mikoto. However Mikoto was able to get good practice with her shield and blocked all of the sabre's attacks. The three girls took turns sparring against each other, to the point where each of them was familiar with each other's styles.

Once Venus was done sparring against Mikoto, she went against Asuna.

Once the spar began, Asuna was able to dominate the match because of her fast sword skills. Venus was forced to be defensive or else suffer multiple strikes from the rapier user. Asuna's fast and trained eyes were able to find an opponent's openings easily, and she was sure to take advantage of those weaknesses.

"I think I'm starting to face the limitations of being a solo player. There's the risk and reward factor to consider but sometimes the risk isn't worth it." Venus pants while taking some deep breaths.

"Now that there are three of us, I think our chances of survival are much higher." Asuna says optimistically.

After less than a week of exploring the dungeons, a party was able to confirm the location of the boss room. Many players, guilds and parties gathered at the ninth floor's town hall to discuss the plan of attack.

As usual, the first phase of the plan was to have a group of brave warriors be scouts. Being a scout was a risky task because it required a group of people fight against the floor boss while gathering up as much information as possible about the boss's techniques, attack patterns, and algorithms.

It was not always a guarantee that those in the scout group came back alive; though the same could be said about the main raiding group. Once the scouts found the information about the boss, the main raid would be formed out of guilds, parties and the occasional solo players. It was taboo to speak out loud about who gets the last would kill bonus, but that issue was on most player's minds.

The last time Asuna and Mikoto went to a boss raid meeting was when a certain blue haired knight led the mission. The one leading the ninth floor raid was not as charming as Diabel, but gave off a very strong and serious aura. Currently the guild with the most prominence was the Holy Dragon Alliance because they boasted the most members.

There were a noticeable percentage of the Holy Dragon Alliance members present at the meeting and some displayed cocky dispositions. Asuna promised herself that she would never join their guild.

A day later the scouting group came back, thankfully all of its members alive. They reported what they found. The boss was a large bipedal fox named Wrath. Wrath wielded twin hook swords which were incredibly deadly and sharp. A hook sword's back side could be used like a regular sword while the hook end could catch and trap enemies. The main way to ensure everybody's safety was to make sure nobody gets caught by the hook.

Reports said that sentinels would appear once its first HP bar is depleted.

Squad formation and assignments were determined next. Mikoto, Asuna and Venus stayed together while they were in Squad F along with 3 other individuals. Again, they were expected not to participate heavily in the boss fight because their main task would be to keep the sentinels at bay while the others fought Wrath.

Asuna felt a bit of déjà vu happening again, but felt that their commander made a good decision. Compared to the others, she and Mikoto were not as experienced as the other frontline battlers. They knew that Venus was indeed a strong player but was not too experienced in the frontlines as well.

"Alright everybody, we're going to head out to the boss room within an hour!" The commander lets out a proud warrior cry that boosts up everybody's spirits.

An hour later, the boss raid group went straight to the dungeons and to the boss room.

Once they found the large doors that were the entrance to the boss room, they opened the wide doors and saw the large fox with twin hook swords in its hands.

Wrath was an orange colored fox that had on a helmet and some armor on. It was slightly bigger than the Kobold Lord from the second floor but Wrath looked tougher.

Once Wrath spotted the players, it charged at them, madly swinging its twin hooks.

The commander shouted out orders, organizing the positions of each squad. Asuna and her friends were positioned in the back.

Not too long later, the first HP bar of Wrath is depleted.

The sentinels dropped down from the ceiling and began trying to attack the players.

Before the sentinels could reach the squads, Asuna and her two other allies were able to hold them off. The situation was like back on the first floor.

Venus was on standby while Asuna and Mikoto took care of the sentinels.

The sentinels were human sized two legged foxes with a mace as its weapon. Asuna was able to deliver multiple sharp thrusts at the foxes and then switched with Venus.

Venus took out her sabre, dodges the mace swipe, crouches down forward to the sentinel and delivers a horizontal strike at its lower mid-section.

Mikoto was able to use her shield by blocking an incoming strike and then jabbing her sword forward at the sentinel's eye.

"Ahhhh!" One of the players screamed as he was suddenly slashed by one of the hook swords. The force of the strike sent that player flying towards a pillar.

"Richard!" One of the Richard's allies shouts out in distress.

The one called Richard had 25% percent of his health depleted. Before Wrath could reach over and finish off Richard, some of the other squadron started attacking Wrath from all sides. Their formation was breaking up and the commander was shouting out orders madly.

Just before all hell broke loose, a certain black swordsman leaps forward to engage in combat against Wrath. Asuna looks at the swordsman in surprise, wondering why she had not spotted him during the boss attack meetings. Perhaps it was because the swordsman did not wish for his presence to be spotted, especially since he was the proclaimed beater.

"Everybody get back together! We can't let our fear get to the better of us!" The commander calls out while trying not to lose confidence in his leadership.

At the sight of the black swordsman holding together the vanguard, the other fighters mustered up their courage to help out.

_Kirito-kun is so strong, it's like he doesn't let the fear of death get to him._

Asuna gets herself together and rushes forward to the vanguard along with Venus and Mikoto. Mikoto is able to use her shield skills to help provide the defense, working together with the other two to have smooth switch timing.

While Asuna was on the defense, she was able to do several successive hits along with multiple rapier thrusts forward. However, Wrath was spinning around its twin hooks madly and one strike was aimed towards Asuna.

"Asuna look out!" Venus shouts out.

Before the long haired girl could react, Venus pushes Asuna aside and blocks the incoming sword hook with her sabre. Some of Venus' HP is depleted because of the sudden force and impact. Venus' sabre is no longer able to withstand the hook sword and she is sent flying away and hits her back against a wall.

"VENUS!" Asuna and Mikoto shout out.

Asuna wanted to rush to Venus' side to see if her friend was alright, but her instinct was telling her to finish up the fight first. Asuna and Mikoto continue their teamwork along with the other players.

Ten minutes later the boss is finished off and the next floor was opened up.

The players all rejoiced and shook hands with their comrades.

Asuna and Mikoto went over to Venus to see if she was alright.

"Thank you so much for helping me out there Venus. If I took that hit then my HP would have been in trouble." Asuna smiles gratefully.

"Y-yeah sure… I'm just looking out for my senpai."

The three girls gave each other high fives before they entered into the sixteenth floor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was another few weeks until the sixteenth floor was conquered. The three Tokiwadai ladies continued to party together, taking on the dungeons and even participating in the boss fight. Asuna felt that her survival was ensured when she was with her two companions.

Before she moved to Academy City, she did not know what it was like being relied on and supported by friends. Asuna is the daughter from a rich family, which made people either fear or resent her. But in SAO, players had to work together in order to survive. Asuna found herself appreciating this world.

The world of SAO was of course cruel since it was intended to be a death game, but somehow it felt more than that. Her sword was able to shape her destiny and take her to places. This was a world where a person could discover a part of themselves that they never did before.

The seventeenth floor was discovered to be a very interesting place. It was considered to be a jungle stage because of the jungle like setting it had. Players had to be very careful if they entered into the jungle because there were a variety of dangerous traps present. Such as how a player could fall quick sand that was capable of completely depleting a player's HP within 30 seconds.

The Tokiwadai trio planned to explore the wild jungle the following day.

Asuna and Mikoto were fast asleep while Venus quietly walked out of the inn and onto the streets of the town…

Venus was wearing a dark cloak as she moved in the darkness.

**Author's Note**: Thank you readers for your support! I am sad to report that my upcoming updates will be slow since I am back in school. Do not worry; I will not be going on a long hiatus or drop the story since I have a lot of cool ideas planned out.

Tune in next chapter to find out who exactly Venus is. Some interesting surprises and appearances in store next time!


	4. Surprising Appearances

**Author's Note:** It's been over a month since my last chapter update. I'm just letting you readers know that I definitely do not intend to drop the story. If you're curious on what future plans I have, read this chapter all the way to the end. I hope that my preview does not disappoint.

**Chapter 4: Surprising Appearances**

Floor 17: Jungle Area

Venus, Asuna, and Mikoto set out for their expedition through the seventeenth floor. Luckily there were no deaths on the previous floor's boss fight, which left everybody in merry spirits. At the rate the frontline groups were progressing, people were beginning to feel optimistic about the future. Optimistic about how it would be possible to clear all 100 floors and get everybody back to reality. Not everybody on the frontlines were there for righteous reasons, there were a noticeable number of individuals that were on the frontlines for the glory. Right now there were no players that really stood out in Aincrad, which meant that a shot at fame was still in everybody's reach.

However with that thirst to prove themselves, people became reckless.

Some people whose levels were not high enough would meet their doom if they faced against a higher leveled monster. There were even bolder individuals that became solo players in order to reap more of the rewards. Solo players were the ones at the highest risk for obvious reasons.

Venus grouped up with Asuna and Mikoto because she was facing the limitations of being a solo player. Though Mikoto found it interesting how Venus was able to survive the frontlines as a solo player. There was only one solo player that Mikoto actually knew, but he was an exception. He was one of beta players that everybody had a negative view of.

At the moment Venus' sword skills and levels were not up to par with Mikoto and Asuna. Asuna was the strongest of the trio in terms of speed while Mikoto specialized in her defense.

"Misaka-sama, shall we head out to the jungle area now?" Venus asks.

Mikoto was uncomfortable when people referred to her with the _sama_ honorific, but she knew there was no way to convince them to call her something less formal. Even though she was a famous figure in Academy City, she never viewed herself as higher than other people.

Right now was in the middle of the day, a good time to go out to explore this uncharted floor.

"Uh yeah sure…" Mikoto responds.

Today was the second day since the seventeenth floor just opened up. The other day the other three girls decided not to head out to map it since they wanted a brief break. The boss raid at the 16th floor was tiring, so they decided to rest before continuing back to the combat field.

Outside the town area was literally a real jungle like setting on the seventeenth floor. There were lots of trees, with dense greenery and vines covering everything. One could easily get lost in this floor if they did not draw up a careful map.

"Did you have a good time exploring the area yesterday?" Asuna asks Venus.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Venus says back.

Mikoto notices how Venus' response came off as defensive. Perhaps it was just the Railgun's imagination that Venus sounds like she was hiding something.

"Oh right, I almost forgot that I went out yesterday on my own." Venus smiles nervously. "I am a forgetful person at times."

Yesterday when the three girls were resting in their inn, Venus was gone for a quite a while in the afternoon. She said that she wanted to have some time alone to explore the area, which was something that didn't seem suspicious to the two other girls.

The monster farming area of the jungle consisted of trees, lots and lots of them. All of these trees made it perfect for monsters to hide and ambush players when their guard was down. Those who were best suited for this type of environment were those with a developed detection skill.

Within the Tokiwadai group of three girls, Mikoto was the one who had the highest detection skill. She decided to devote her time to improve detection skill since spotting any hidden threats would increase their chance of survival.

They were so far making real progress defeating the jungle type of monsters such as the dangerous gorillas and giant bugs. Right now they were in the middle of the jungle area, within an area with dense tropical trees and vines. Everywhere seemed to scream green.

Mikoto's detection sense picks up something a small incoming projectile. She immediately turns around, with her shield forward.

PING!

Her shield immediately blocks an incoming small blade that was just thrown directly towards her.

"We're being ambushed!" The Railgun shouts out.

The three girls went in a formation where their backs were against each other.

Asuna immediately gets into an offensive stance with her sword.

Venus has her sabre out and instead of looking wary, she grins.

Venus sends her sword towards Asuna's way

The corner of Mikoto's eyes was paying attention to Venus, so she immediately caught on what was going on.

"Look out!"

However it was too late as the sabre was able to make its mark. Asuna's eyes go wide as she was hit by the sword.

Before Venus could inflict upon any more damage Mikoto sends a slant slash at Venus, resulting in the two girls's swords clashing.

"What are you doing?!" The Railgun yells at Venus.

Mikoto could see that Asuna's HP was now in the yellow zone, but the rapier user was overall fine.

The sabre user's grin goes wider. Venus then jumps back and takes some more steps backwards. "Leave it to you to always have your comrade's backs."

"Asuna are you alright?" Mikoto looks at her friend worried.

"Y-yeah I'm fine." Asuna regains her composure and then looks towards her former comrade.

Before Mikoto could charge forth at Venus, a few voices sound from the nearby trees. Her detection skill could pick up the presence of more players.

"You were right, Misaka Mikoto is really in this cruel world." A voice chuckles.

"We can't waste an opportunity like this." Another voice says.

"In this world, she is not the untouchable level five esper. She's actually normal."

"I've been looking forward to finally take down Tokiwadai's Ace and Beauty."

4 figure immediately appear from some nearby trees. Each of the 4 figures were girls and armed with weapons.

The first thing Mikoto immediately noticed was how their icons were orange colored.

Her eyes immediately went wide. The emotion of fear was coursing through her being.

Orange players were those who committed crimes in SAO. Their crimes included stealing or harming other players. They were considered the worst players anybody could ever encounter.

The 4 orange girls then went to Venus' side.

"Orange players?" Asuna stares at them surprised.

"I can't help but feel that these girls look familiar…" Mikoto mutters.

"We're also from Tokiwadai… but you wouldn't know that right?" One of the girls scoffs. "You're always up on your high pedestal being worshipped."

"You certainly aren't a figure who deserves to be worshipped." Another girl adds in

"Do you have any idea how disgusted I felt every time I called you Misaka-sama?" Venus says with a venomous tone.

The five menacing girls then surrounded Mikoto and Asuna. Mikoto could clearly see what was going on, how she and Asuna had actually kept a rat in their midst for the past few days.

"I was so fortunate to coincidentally run into Academy City's famous Railgun and even Tokiwadai's Beauty. My group members decided to have me go out and map some parts of the level 15 dungeon by myself… I felt a bit scared and betrayed at first. That all changed when I met you two. When your backs were turned, I immediately messaged them about my situation."

The anger in Misaka Mikoto was boiling; she resisted attacking Venus right there and then. The Railgun wanted to hear more of Venus' villainous monologue.

"I told them that I ran into some other Tokiwadai students- students who Tokiwadai's Queen does not think highly of."

"Queen?" Mikoto's eyes go wider in surprise.

Tokiwadai's queen was also Academy City's fifth ranked level five esper, Shokuhou Misaki. Misaki was known for her esper ability named Mental Out, an ability that makes her the strongest psychic in the city. The Queen's faction had a considerate amount of Tokiwadai students in it, meaning she was a person with heavy influence in the student population.

_Are these girls followers of Queen?_

Misaka Mikoto was never really on friendly terms with Misaki. Some students believed there was a rivalry between the Ace and Queen of Tokiwadai, which is why the Misaka fan club and Queen's faction were often disagreed with each other.

"Our Queen would applaud us for taking this opportunity for disposing you two. She believed that Tokiwadai's Ace and Beauty were threats to her popularity and influence…" One of the girls smiles fiendishly.

"However that's not the only reason why I decided to stab you two in the back."

Mikoto could now see Venus' eyes looking sincere.

"You see... at Academy City I was considered a nobody. Do you want to know why?" Venus glares intently at Asuna and Mikoto. "I was a level 3 electromaster and no matter what I did, I never got recognized for my accomplishments! Tokiwadai's Ace was always getting all of the glory. I was always being compared to Misaka's power! Every time there was a system scan, the teachers would always say 'too bad you aren't able to level up like The Railgun'."

Mikoto grit her teeth and could feel her sword was shaking. Her body was shaking in anger.

"You don't deserve your popularity at all, Queen is the one who deserves to be the most recognized student at Tokiwadai. She chooses not to flaunt herself like you do!"

One notable characteristic of the Queen was that she never likes to show herself in public. She usually had her fans act as her representatives.

"How dare you use some excuse like levels to even judge us?" Asuna speaks out. The long haired girl had a resolute spirit in her voice.

Mikoto could see a hint of anger also in Asuna's eyes.

"Just because Mikoto is a level 5 you shouldn't just assume her personality. Haven't you seen how kindly she has treated you?"

"Psh, kindness is weakness. She is kind in this world because she is now weak. Her level 5 status no longer applies here. We are not afraid of her." Venus scoffs. "What are you going to do against us? You both are outnumbered."

"Do you plan to kill us?" Mikoto utters. This was one of those times where she would have given her enemies a small rant, but she did not want to waste her breath or words.

"We haven't actually killed anybody yet. So far we've just taken down some weaker players to steal their items. We want to make you two suffer and take your items. From what I saw in your storages, you two have some valuable items that would fetch a lot of Col."

"Taking down the Railgun will certainly be a pleasure. Maybe you two will end up being the first people we actually kill." One of the girls says viciously.

Mikoto knew that some of the students back at Tokiwadai were not mentally stable. It was especially those of high power whose mental states were questionable. This was the case with some of the level fives.

Asuna and Mikoto looked at each other and realized that this was a fight they did not want to endure. They nodded, understanding what the other was thinking.

Mioto knew that this was the time to take out their teleportation crystal and teleport back into a safe town. However while she was digging into her pockets, she felt no crystal was inside it.

"What the-?"

"Looking for these?" Venus holds out two blue colored crystals. "I took them from you two while you were sleeping last night. It would be tragic if you were able to escape from this trap oh so easily." She smirks satisfied.

Mikoto and Asuna were forced to endure this unfair combat.

The first orange player came in with a forward strike that Mikoto was able to block with her shield. However she could hear somebody else was approaching behind her and had her broadsword out to block an incoming horizontal attack. Right now she was holding up against two players at once which felt a lot more challenging than fighting against a group of monsters.

"Hah!" Asuna charges forth with a linear attack, but her attack completely misses because the girl she was aiming for moves to the side.

"We know the way you two fight." The girl who was in front of Mikoto's shield says. "Venus told us everything we needed to know, such as how the mighty Railgun is useless without her shield."

Mikoto was doing her best holding off the two girls at once. This was the moment when her body would become a fighting machine, when the life of the people, or in this case person important to her was in danger. She was about to let herself loose, let her fighting instincts instantly take over her body.

However before she could do anything further, her detection skill picks up another group of players that were closing in on her position.

"What are you guys doing picking on two innocent girls?!" A male voice yells out.

Asuna, Mikoto, and their attackers turn their attention to the sudden voice that seemed to sound out of nowhere.

They could see a group of red armored fighters in close proximity. The one leading them was a spikey, red haired guy who was wearing a head band. He and his group were dressed like Japanese samurais.

The leader grins widely at his sudden entrance.

"From what I see, it looks like you orange players are trying to do some more harm! I Klein, the leader of the Fuurinkazan guild will not tolerate this injustice." The red samurai unsheathes out his katana and points it towards the group of attackers. "You orange players have made the enemies of the worst guild possible."

The rest of the Fuurinkazan guild members gave out a warrior cry and charged forth.

"What the hell are we going to do?!" One of the orange girls mutters frantically. "They're one of the clearing guilds and they look strong!"

Mikoto and Asuna take advantage of the situation by continuing their attacks upon the orange players. The orange players were focusing most of their attention at the incoming samurais that they briefly let their guard down.

"Charge!"

The samurai warriors go forth and help out the two girls. The Fuurinkazan guild was able to surround the attackers, to prevent them from trying to escape.

Venus begins panicking and takes out a teleport crystal.

"Teleport to -!"

Before she could finish what she was about to utter, Mikoto knocks away Venus' crystal with a sword strike. The crystal falls to the ground and breaks into pieces.

"What are you going to do to me now Railgun?" Venus sneers. "In this world we're both on the even playing field. You're not that all powerful level 5 that everybody worships, you're just an ordinary player like the rest of us."

"Even if I don't have my esper powers in this world, but I've learned to find my strength elsewhere. In Aincrad, a sword can take you anywhere. Allow me to show my conviction through my sword." Mikoto points her broadsword's tip inches from Venus' face.

"What kind of cheesy line is that?" Venus scoffs. "To think that you're so dense enough to even find optimism in this world. Go ahead and take away my life. There's no proof that if one dies in here, they die for real."

"It's sad to see somebody who doesn't appreciate their own value."

Mikoto pulls the tip of her sword back.

Venus half smirks and pulls out a dagger she had in her pocket.

"You're weak hearted and you know it!"

Venus jumps towards Mikoto about to stab the Railgun with her dagger.

However before the dagger hit could make its mark, Mikoto's left hand relinquishes her shield and she grips onto Venus' wrist.

Venus' dagger strike was inches from Mikoto's face, but its path was stopped because of Mikoto's grip onto the dagger user's wrist.

"Trust me when I say that I am really holding back against you." Mikoto's eyes had a dangerous tint to it. The people that she hated the most were the types who were deceitful and hurt her friends.

The Railgun followed through by performing a hand twisting maneuver on Venus' dagger that made Venus let go of her dagger.

Mikoto afterwards holds her sword so that its edge was dangerously close to Venus' throat. If Venus dared move, she would risk injury from the sword.

"You know… we really could have been good friends…" The Railgun utters regretfully.

"At least I know that I was able to make you and Asuna feel weak and vulnerable. You two probably feel so exploited right now… if I made you two feel terrible, then I say I did a job well done." Venus smirks, proud of herself.

"As if I have time to spare emotions on you… what you did was terrible but it would do me no good to dwell on the past. As far as I am concerned, you do not exist to me."

"Hmph…" Venus remained silent afterwards.

When the fight was over, the winners were the Fuurinkazan guild and the two Tokiwadai girls.

Asuna and the red samurai's HP's were not too low luckily.

Upon defeat, the attackers had their hands bound and tied. Venus did not dare to say another word and her eyes were completely locked onto the floor.

Venus and her comrades were taken to the iron prison back on the first floor by some of the Fuurinkazan members.

At the moment there was now only Klein, the leader, and two of his other members present with Asuna and Mikoto.

"N-nice to meet you two, I'm Klein." The red samurai bows his head down towards the girls.

"Thank you so much Klein-san, I'm Asuna."

"And I'm Mikoto."

"You looked very cool back there Klein." Asuna praises.

"R-really? Well thank you. Being out here on the frontlines must be very dangerous for just you two girls. Why not party with my guild? It's not like I'm asking you two to join my guild or anything, I just want to make sure you two don't get into any more unnecessary danger."

Klein's flustering words made his other guild members chuckle.

"Hey leader, don't make it so obvious that you're very nervous when you're around girls." One of the guild members calls out.

"O-oy! Don't say such weird things." Klein retorts back.

Asuna and Mikoto look at each other, amused and chuckle as well.

"I suppose we can party with you and your guild members, but we wouldn't want to be a burden or hold you guys back." Mikoto responds.

"I don't think you girls would be a burden at all, you two must have pretty good sword fighting skills if you managed to hold against those orange players." Klein says.

"Y-yeah..." Asuna's eyes shift away.

Mikoto notices Asuna's change of expression and has an idea of what her friend was thinking. It was just a short while ago that the two girls found out that Venus, their so called comrade, set them up for a trap. Mikoto generally found it difficult to trust other people and felt herself be taken like a fool because she was beginning to trust Venus.

"Uh- did I say something offensive? Because if I did, I humbly apologize!" Klein nervously waves his hands in the air.

Mikoto realizes that she and Asuna were having sad expressions on their faces and so she regains back to her usual composure.

"Oh no, it's just we are still a bit distraught over how we were just attacked earlier."

"Let's get your mind off that terrible situation and continue going through this wild jungle. With all of our combined strength, we'll surely get through this together!" The guild leader fist pumps in the air.

Klein's enthusiasm was making Mikoto feel better. Perhaps Klein was indeed a genuine person they should stick around with.

Misaka Mikoto and Yuuki Asuna continued along with Klein's guild to the dangerous jungle.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Look out!" Ryuu, one of the Fuurinkazan guild members shouts out.

Klein was barely able to avoid the strike from the jaguar warrior and counters back with a forward thrust from his katana.

"ARHHHH!" The red samurai lets out a war cry as he executes his attack.

The jaguar warrior's HP was depleted and the warrior exploded into a thousand polygons.

Ryuu, the player with a pole weapon that had a V shaped metal end sighs relieved.

"Thank goodness you're alright leader. Sometimes you can be pretty reckless."

The others let out a good natured laugh.

"D-don't try to embarrass me in front of the two girls here!" Klein babbles.

"You're pretty good with a katana Klein." Asuna compliments.

"Why thank you." The red samurai gives her a thumbs up. "In order to use the katana, I had to obtain the katana sword skill. There are not many players who can use that type of sword." He adds with pride.

"I think we should head back to our rented house soon. Our other guild member probably feels lonely being by himself." Ryuu mentions. "I'm sure the others also returned back too after heading to the black iron prison."

"Oh that's right!" Klein turns to the two Tokiwadai girls. "Will you join me and my guild members for dinner?"

"Uh sure that sounds fine." Mikoto answers. "Asuna and I really don't want to trouble you and your guild."

"It's no trouble at all!" All of the Fuurinkazan members resound together.

Back at the town area of floor 17, Fuurinkazan had rented out a small house for one sole reason. Because their newest member had a relatively high cooking skill and only houses had kitchens available to use. According to Klein, this one member decided to stay behind at the house today so that he could prepare a big meal for the other guild members.

"We're back!" Klein announces while opening the door.

The house was designed like a humble cottage. It had two stories; the first story was devoted for a comfortable sized furnished living room and the kitchen. The house was owned by an NPC, and the rent for the house per day was twice the amount of staying at an inn for one night. However Klein and his guild members farmed many monsters, meaning they had a lot of Col to spare and spend.

"Everything is almost done now leader." A spikey haired boy appears near the entrance in an apron. "I spent most of my time experimenting with all kinds of sauces and trying to get delicious flavors."

"I hope you made something good today, because we brought guests here."

"Guests?" The boy gazes over at the two girls who just entered into the house.

Mikoto looks at the boy.

Her eyes go incredibly wide and her mouth opens.

"EHHHH?!" The boy and Mikoto scream out loud at the sight of each other.

The two individuals apparently recognized each other.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" The Railgun and black spikey haired boy screamed at each other.

They spend the next 10 seconds staring at each other in disbelief.

Everybody else in the room had question marks appearing over their heads.

Nobody had any idea what was going on.

"Uh… do you two know each other?" Klein asks.

"I didn't expect to see you here Biri Biri." Touma, the unfortunate boy of Academy City, can't help but grin. "It sure is nice to see a familiar face though."

Kamijou Touma, the boy who was the target interest of Academy City's Railgun. The boy possessed a unique skill called Imagine Breaker, in which his right hand was capable of nullifying all forms of magic and esper abilities. Ever since Mikoto met him, she was always confused as to why she felt flustered in his presence.

In Aincrad, Touma looked like his usual self, except for he was wearing SAO type of clothing and donned an apron.

"How many times do I tell you not to call me that! Besides… I can't use my electrical powers in this world."

"Whew thank goodness." Touma sighs relieved. "Now I don't have to worry about you shocking me every single time we meet."

However Touma sweat drops nervously when he sees Mikoto about to pull out her sword from her sheath.

"Okay never mind! Now you're probably just as dangerous with a sword." The unfortunate boy holds his hands up near his face defensively.

"Since I can't use my esper ability; that must mean that right hand of yours is just a normal hand."

Mikoto calms down and moves her hand away from her sword's handle.

"Can somebody answer my question?" The red samurai speaks out.

"Well leader, this is Misaka Mikoto, the crazy electromaster who comes from the same place as me back in Japan." Touma answers.

"Who are you calling crazy?!" Mikoto glares at the spikey haired boy.

"You really need to learn how to properly talk to girls." Klein puts his arm around Touma and whispers into the unfortunate's boy ear.

"Oh… so Touma is also a student at Academy City?" Asuna asks to clarify.

"Yup, and I can't believe this idiot is also stuck in Sword Art Online as well." Mikoto sighs.

"Is my presence that annoying to you? It's not like I've done anything to you." Touma gestures wildly.

"Oh, you have no idea what things make me annoyed about you!"

Asuna watches the two of them bickering and an amused smile cracks from her face.

"So this must be the gentleman Shirai-san has been referring to all of this time." The long haired girl mutters lowly to herself.

"Do I need to give you two a room?" Asuna asks them.

"NO!" The black haired boy and short haired girl exclaim at the same time.

"Looks like you've met some really interesting people so far Klein." Ryuu utters to Klein.

"Haha, those two really sound like an old married couple." The red samurai grins.

"HELL NO AM I IN RELATIONSHIP WITH THAT IDIOT!" Mikoto roars.

"How can you say such a disturbing thing Klein…?" Touma looks a bit distraught.

"Anyways we should get started on eating dinner. Touma's cooking is pretty impressive so I hope Mikoto and Asuna enjoy it." Klein says.

"Eh? So you know how to cook?" Mikoto asks.

"Of course I do. I live by myself, which means I have to be a man and learn how to cook."  
(**Author's note**: I should mention that since this is an AU story, Index is not included in this universe. So technically Touma lives by himself)

"With your luck, I'm surprised you haven't burnt yourself to death."

"Hey hey! At least I actually know how to cook. I bet you are clueless about making food for yourself since you're an ojou-sama."

"Here they go again…" Asuna sighs.

"WHY YOU-!"

They continued bickering back and forth until Klein and Asuna stopped them.

Ten minutes later, Touma was finished with his cooking and everybody was sitting down at the dining room table. Once everybody had their bowl filled with curry, they began eating.

Mikoto took a spoonful of the curry and her mouth tasted an explosion of flavors.

"This is really good…" She admits while wolfing down more curry.

"Are you really being lady like by eating your food that quickly?" Touma comments.

CLANK

Mikoto drops her spoon down and holds up an angry fist.

"It's not like I need to be lady like in this world! I can do whatever I want!" The Railgun blushes.

"I've never really seen this side of you Mikoto." Asuna sniggers.

A few days ago, Mikoto was finally able to convince Asuna to call her by her first name, Mikoto instead of the more formal "Misaka-san."

"This guy brings out the worst of me." Mikoto huffs.

The long haired girl smiles awkwardly and she decides to change the subject.

"How long have you been with Klein's guild?" Asuna turns to Touma.

"Just one floor ago actually. They found me on a lower floor while I was fighting against some players who were bullying a girl. I thanked them for helping me out by cooking them dinner. Klein saw that I was strong enough to join his guild at the frontlines and so I accepted. For a while I was a solo player, farming monsters and gradually leveling up. Cooking has sort of been my hobby if I'm not fighting."

"Can you teach me the basics of cooking? I really want to learn how to cook." Asuna asks, her eyes lighting up.

"Sure of course. Though cooking can be a bit oversimplified in this world." Touma admits

While Mikoto was listening to the conversation between her friend and Touma, she can't help but want Touma to teach her as well.

There was definitely more to Touma that she wanted to know about.

Everybody continued the dinner with bouts of laughter and good conversation.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

CLANG!

CLASH!

CLANG!

Early in the morning Mikoto challenged Touma to a "friendly spar."

CLANG!

"Ah! You could have almost killed me there!" The unfortunate boy exclaims.

This supposedly "friendly" spar was now becoming dangerous.

"I can't kill you within a town zone anyways. Your HP is in no way at all at risk." Mikoto grins while charging at him with a combination of sword strikes.

"That still doesn't mean you can release your anger towards me!" Touma did the best he could to fend off Mikoto's attacks with his katana.

Asuna was at the side, watching the two of them fight each other.

"AHHH!" Touma executes the sword skill sonic leap, in which he dashes towards Mikoto and delivers a downward strike.

Mikoto uses her shield to block the incoming sword skill and immediately retaliates back by using the horizontal skill strike to aim for Touma's side.

The spikey haired boy was able to position his sword downward to his side to block Mikoto's strike.

"You're not bad at all." The Railgun smirks.

"I think I feel relieved that we can fight on a leveled playing field instead of you throwing electricity at poor ol' me."

"I still don't get why my electricity can never harm you!"

The two tradeoff some more slashes, dodges and near hits.

"I think I'm at a disadvantage because you have a shield."

"That doesn't mean I'm going to go any easier against you."

More near hits and blocks occurred.

"How much longer are we going to continue this…? Is it until you're satisfied with chopping me up into pieces?!"

Mikoto grunts angrily and now became the epitome of an offensive tank.

She unleashes out barrages of sword strikes that became even more difficult to miss and block.

"Gyaaahhh!" Touma falls down to the side, dropping his sword.

He looked like a dog that was lying on the ground, which made him looked pathetic yet laughable at the same time.

"I-I give up…" The boy groans.

He was the dog trying to play dead.

Mikoto stops her sword attacks, now experiencing the sensation of déjà vu.

"Don't screw with like that! I know you're just pretending to give up, you've done it before!" The Railgun screams at the unfortunate boy.

"It's your victory, I don't care if it's my loss!" The boy gets up, waving his hands frantically in front of his face.

"I'm not going to be satisfied until I give you a real beating!"

Mikoto lunges towards him, as if she was about to smack him with her shield.

"Why do you keep doing this to only me?!" Touma runs off, as if his life depends on it. In Academy City and now in Sword Art Online, Touma was still afraid of the Railgun's actions.

"Come back here and fight me!"

While watching the two of them verbally and physically fight, Asuna sighs amused.

"Those two can be so carefree." The long haired girl smiles.

Mikoto, with her sword swinging, continued to chase after the spikey haired boy. It was like they never left Academy City.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Mikoto finally stopped chasing after Touma when she realized how ridiculous she looked. She could feel her entire face turning warmer than usual when she went back into the house and washed her face. She puts her hands on her cheeks and sighs.

"Why am I like this?" She utters quietly.

"Touma said that he is going to give us cooking lessons today." Asuna walks right up to Mikoto.

"Ah!" The Railgun was startled. She immediately puts her hands away from her cheeks.

"S-sorry about that… I didn't mean to scare you."

"Er it's fine… so should we head to the kitchen right now?"

In Aincrad, every player had 11 skill slots. Most players chose to fill their 11 slots with entirely combat skills, while there were others who wanted to have a more balanced skill set, thus choosing to have noncombat skills. Asuna and Mikoto discussed a short while back that they desired to fill one of their remaining skill slots with the cooking skill.

Mikoto was at first hesitant about that choice since she wanted to invest her skills entirely to combat, but then she realized that her life in Aincrad should not be completely devoted to fighting.

While fighting was definitely a significant aspect to her life, she wanted to learn to enjoy her time in the virtual world instead of dreading it every minute.

Asuna and Mikoto head to the kitchen, which was a relatively decent sized one and see Touma was in his apron.

Mikoto tries to resist the urge to laugh, but she obviously could not hold her laughter back.

"You look so ridiculous like that." The Railgun cracks up.

"I'm just wearing the appropriate cooking wear." The spikey hair boy looks a bit embarrassed.

"Is it really necessary?"

"I-it makes me feel like I'm back home!" Touma reasons.

Touma puts out his two fingers in order to access his window and some ingredients appear before them at the kitchen counter.

"First of all, cooking is like any other skill in SAO, you need to practice it repetitively in order to level up. Each of you should start practicing how to use a knife first."

Touma accesses his window inventory and two more knives appear. Mikoto and Asuna grab onto the knives.

"Now go ahead and access your skill window and to add the cooking skill."

Mikoto uses her two fingers from her right hand to open up her window and sees that she still has 3 open skill slots. The other slots were occupied with combat skills.

She clicks the option to "add skill" and chooses the "cooking skill".

Once she confirms the addition of her new skill, she sees that she now has 2 open skill slots left.

"Somehow I get the idea this is your first time in a kitchen biri biri." Touma comments.

"Why do you still call me that? I can't even go biri biri here!"

"Eh… so you admit that my nickname for you is justified?" The spikey hair boy grins pleased.

Mikoto holds the knife in a threatening manner towards Touma.

"Do you still think I'm such a helpless little girl even without my electricity?" She utters darkly.

"D-don't point the knife at me like that!" Touma shouts back.

"Geez… you two are never going to get anything done." Asuna shakes her head.

Touma begins instructing the two girls on the basics of cooking and even whips up a few of his own cooking creations. Asuna and Mikoto eat some of his cooking and were even more amazed at his skills.

"Even if my ingredients aren't too high class, I still make do with what I have." Touma adds with slight prideful tone.

"You know, you could have been a cook in this world." Asuna notes.

"Though there isn't any job class in this game, but it would be interesting to do something like own a restaurant here."

"Why don't you?" The long haired girl asks him.

"Because I feel that I can't just sit around while players risk their lives at the frontlines every day. Back in the real world, I was never the idle figure that just let things happen before my eyes. I prefer to intervene in the situation and do everything in my power to change the outcome for the better. Most players are too scared to go to the frontlines and risk their lives. I decided to be one of the individuals to carry the burden of rescuing everybody else out of this world. When lives are at stake, how can I not take action?"

Touma pauses and his eyes have a serious tint to them.

"You two probably understand how I feel right?"

Asuna and Mikoto nod.

"Right…" Mikoto utters.

Mikoto recalled this sense of helplessness when she entered into this world. She was once one of the most powerful espers, but in this world she became as normal as everybody else. However she was able to break past that helplessness and learned to adapt and adjust to SAO. Touma was right about how she felt that she had the duty of fighting onwards. Everybody in the lower floors was counting on her and the other frontline members to clear the game. Mikoto definitely could not let them down.

"Tomorrow I'll go with Klein and the other guild members to the dungeon. Will you two lend us your strength?"

Mikoto knew that Touma was not asking her or Asuna to join Fuurinkazan. Perhaps he felt it was his gentlemanly obligation to not let two girls venture through a dangerous dungeon by themselves. It was this attitude of his that made Mikoto smile on the inside.

Touma's presence made her feel better and strangely happier. Being around him made her forget about the terrible feelings she felt after the whole Venus incident. Touma was a person who could make her release out her anxiety, thus make her feel not as stressed. His righteous attitude made him admirable, especially how he believed in protecting those who do not ask for help.

_He is a person I never want to disappear from my life._ _He makes me feel that I can endure through any hardships and continue treading forward._

The Railgun mentally utters.

"That sounds good to me." Asuna smiles. She then turns to Mikoto. "What about you?"

Without hesitation, Mikoto grins and answers

"If we all have the same goal, there's no harm in working together to achieve it."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

_PREVIEW OF FUTURE UPCOMING CHAPTER:_

The gray haired player watched in horror at the spectacle before him.

His eyes went wide, his entire body shaking.

While his mind was screaming for him to take out his teleportation crystal, his entire body was frozen.

He finally mustered enough strength to take out the crystal and opens his mouth to shout out the location he wished to teleport to.

Before he could utter anything from his mouth…

SHING!

A bright silver flash went by his right side.

"T-teleport Pria!"

The player shouts out loud, but nothing happened.

He was not teleported, was the crystal a dud?

He goes to look at his right hand, which was supposed to be holding onto the crystal.

What he saw was very disturbing.

His right hand, more specifically his entire right arm, was no longer attached to his body.

On the ground was his entire right arm, with his right hand still clasping onto the crystal.

"AHHH-AHHHH-AHH!"

Before the player could run off, five cloaked figures surrounded him. The same cloaked figures that killed his guild members just half a minute ago.

"Ha ha ha." They chuckled lowly.

"To think it took you that long to notice that your entire arm was missing. Either you're that stupid or I'm just that good with my chopping."

One of the cloaked figures whispers eerily into the player's ear. This figure was uncomfortably close to that player.

This particular cloaked was wielding a butcher knife, the knife that swiftly chopped off the player's entire arm.

The gray haired player was trembling even more than before.

"Now boys…" The cloak figure with the butcher knife turned his attention to the other figures. "Do you know what time it is?"

The others sniggered and began cheering loudly. It was like they were watching a live entertainment spectacle.

"It's show time!"

The cloaked figure raises up his butcher knife and executes the gray haired player with a downward strike to the head.

The gray haired player explodes into a thousand polygons once he was hit with the fatal strike.

"Way to go leader!" One of the other cloaked figures claps.

"This is only the beginning boys…" The leader of the group readjusts his grip on his butcher knife. "All of Aincrad will know who we are… they will receive our message… that none of them are safe from us."

The leader takes a half second to breathe before he shouts out.

"WE ARE LAUGHING COFFIN!"

**Author's Note:** I know that the beginning of the story and its progression was rushed, so sorry about that! I couldn't think of a better way to format it. I promise I will make it up with the Laughing Coffin arc.

What did you readers think of that preview? I've been planning to do an arc that features Laughing Coffin's role in Aincrad since the light novels do not elaborate too much on that.

I'm sure most of you are aware of this bit of news, but it just makes me so excited whenever I think about it – TO ARU KAGAKU NO RAILGUN IS GETTING A SECOND SEASON! When I heard that news, I was mentally jumping for joy. Another season means for Misaka Mikoto moments! Those of you who have read my stories know that I am a big fan of Mikoto.

I also need suggestions for what type of sword Touma could use since I never specified it. Since he's part of Fuurinkazan it will be some Japanese sword, though I'm not sure what kind. Most likely he'll become a katana user if I can't come up with any good ideas. Another question I would like to ask my readers: since Asuna is eventually going to be known as "The Flash" should Mikoto get a nickname too? Any suggestions?

My next update will probably take a long while since I am still in school. Perhaps I can make my next update once winter break comes around.


	5. Hope and Fear

**Author's Note**: I am so sorry for not updating for nearly 2 months; I've been busy and working on my other stories as well. Happy New Years! Let's hope this chapter has been worth the long wait.

**Chapter Five**: Hope and Fear

-Aincrad's 25th Floor-

When the 24th floor boss was defeated, the front liners' spirits were at an all-time high. They all felt accomplished for being able to make it to the 25th floor, meaning that one-fourth of their struggle was already completed. There had many lives lost at the beginning of the game, but the casualty rate decreased over time.

However that optimistic happy spirit quickly died away once the players realized the horrendous nature of the 25th floor. The mobs were abnormally stronger compared to the ones on the previous floors. Any player who dared to solo through the combat zone was either asking for death or really confident in their skills. The combat field's topography was oddly complex, making the mapping progress be hindered greatly. There was also no shortage of traps along the terrain which included poisonous swamps.

The front liners already felt exhausted by the time they made it to the labyrinth tower. There were those brave individuals who did their best to search for the boss room. Usually players sought out information from NPC's, but on this floor there were hardly any NPC's that would guide the players in the right direction. However nobody was looking forward to witnessing how strong this floor's boss was because of the hardships already faced against the mobs. This was perhaps the greatest challenge for the fighters ever since going through the 1st floor.

The one that managed to bring some slight spirit back in the front liners was the Aincrad Liberation Force, aka The Army. Kibaou, the leader of The Army managed to motivate troops into getting back on their feet. However the army's dominating power came to a downfall because of some false information. Kibaou assembled up 40 Army members and lead a raid to the boss room. It resulted in a complete disaster. Many Army members faced a horrible massacre but the remaining members left were saved by the main clearing group.

Asuna, Mikoto, Touma, Klein and his guild took part in the battle against the boss. The boss was a two headed giant wielding a large war hammer. Somehow the appearance of a two headed monster scared the players even more than the previous bosses. When the front liners entered into the boss room, a few players stormed out of the room after witnessing the boss' frightful appearance and power. Even though the main clearing group suffered losses, they were somehow able to finally beat down the dreaded boss.

After the battle Mikoto and Asuna laid down on the ground, panting heavily. Everybody was tired. Nobody was excited about opening up the next floor. They all feared advancing on and facing more danger and causalities. Nobody was relieved that the two headed boss monster was gone.

There were perhaps even more bosses like that awaiting them in the future.

"I seriously thought I was about to die…" Mikoto admits while still breathing heavily. Her sword and shield were on the ground right beside her.

"Same here." Touma says while sitting on the ground. He and his guild members from Fuurinkazan were nearby Asuna and Mikoto. They were all resting as well.

"All I have to say is, what the hell kind of monster was that? It was hard attacking the boss at its blind spot because it had two friggin heads!" Klein exclaims.

"At least I'm glad that we're alive." Asuna adds solemnly. Even though she was fortunate to be alive, there were many lives lost during this floor's clearing and boss battle.

"So what is going to happen to the Aincrad Liberation Force?" Touma asks curiously.

"I think they're no longer considered strong enough to remain on the front lines. They'll probably settle in a lower floor for now." Klein explains.

"How about we grab a bite to eat? I'm always hungry after every boss battle." The red samurai adds as he pats his stomach.

"Yeah sure, we need to do something to lighten up the mood." Mikoto sighs. Honestly she was anticipating the front liners to react more cheerfully after the defeat of this boss. However the atmosphere felt as mournful as a funeral.

They all got up after catching their breaths and walked up the stairway towards the 26th floor. Some other front liners opened up the new floor and were already exploring it. However Asuna doubted anybody would be going to the combat zone right off the bat. It looked like everybody needed to forget about the horrors from the previous floor.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Even though one quarter of Aincrad was cleared, nobody was in a cheerful mood. Usually the restaurants on the new opened floors were filled with celebratory spirits. However the mood in any gathering place was rather solemn. It was not uncommon to go into a restaurant and find somebody mourning the loss of their friend.

Fuurinkazan along with Mikoto and Asuna were in a nearby NPC restaurant.

Right now their table was rather quiet. There did not seem to be any topic of interest at the moment. Usually Klein discussed how "awesome" and "amazing" the previous boss battle was like and how he was looking forward to conquering the current floor. Though in this case, nobody found a reason to be enthusiastic.

"Enough with this gloominess!" Klein smacks his hand against the table, making a few cups shake. "Even though the front line suffered a heavy blow that does not mean we stop our front line efforts!"

His booming voice catches the attention of the entire restaurant. All eyes were on him. The eyes that look upon Klein were weary and tired ones.

"Leader is right." Touma speaks out bravely as he stands up. "There is nobody else on the outside world who can help us out. We have to take it upon ourselves to get out of Aincrad by clearing all of the floors, even if it means we put our lives in extreme danger."

A few voices in the room mutter in agreement.

"Yeah, what he said!" Klein exclaims with a glass raised in the air. He stands up as well. "Everybody on the lower floors is counting on us. The blacksmiths and merchants are supporting us and do we want to let them down?!"

"NO!" Everybody else resounds.

"We cannot let them down at all! Too many people are depending on us to clear this game. It is inevitable that we will face future losses but we must not give up at all. If we lose our fighting spirit, then that scoundrel Kayaba Akihiko will have basically won. Do all of you want to beat him as his own game?!"

Nearly everybody shouts and cheers in excitement. Klein, the red samurai was able to renew the spirits of some of the players.

Klein takes a seat and receives a few pats on the back from his fellow guild members.

"You really are a good speaker." Asuna smiles kindly.

"Why er… thank you." Klein rubs the back of his neck nervously.

"Asuna-san, you've made our leader embarrassed." One of the Fuurinkazan member laughs.

Everybody else at their table joins in on the laughter.

"Sh-shut up!" Klein raises his fist in the air. "I was getting so angry at how everybody looked like they wanted to give up already. When somebody one day writes about the adventures in Sword Art Online, I better get mentioned."

"I don't think I've done anything too notable yet to even be mentioned in a book about SAO." Mikoto shrugs her shoulders as she drinks her cup of water.

"Don't say that." Touma smiles at her direction. "You've helped out the front lines a lot and you're a very strong girl."

Mikoto's cheeks immediately have a faint pink blush.

Asuna chuckles amused as she watched Mikoto be flustered.

The rapier user sees that the atmosphere became brighter. There was actually laughter being heard instead of just silence. Only a few heard Klein's moving words, meaning that there were still others out there that were still in despair. She couldn't help but wonder how many players would be willing to continue on with the front lines.

It was an over an hour since Asuna and the others were at the restaurant. Asuna notices how one particular player in the restaurant was eyeing her and Mikoto.

Asuna was about to alert Mikoto about this person but the man gets up from his seat.

The tall looking man with steel gray hair approaches them. The man had a very serious complexion on.

Asuna and Mikoto immediately turn their attention to him.

Klein, Touma and the other members notice the incoming stranger as well and turn towards him.

"Hello there my name is Heathcliff. I know that your names are Asuna-kun and Mikoto-kun." Heathcliff utters in a strong tone. His voice could demand the attention of any audience.

"Yes that is us." Mikoto responds.

Asuna was astounded at how this man found out their names and why he was even approaching them.

"I am sorry if I caused you any discomfort. It's just that I have a lot on my mind right now. I'll cut to the main point of this conversation." His eyes become more serious. "I wish to start a front line guild, called the Knights of Blood."

There were a few front line guilds at the moment such as Fuurinkazan. The most known one at the moment is the Divine Dragon Alliance. The Divine Dragon Alliance was heavily recruiting members at the earlier floors and eventually formed a noticeable sized guild. Forming a new front line guild meant that it would need strong members in order to keep the guild alive. Not too long ago a few front line guilds disbanded because of disagreements and the fact that some members were not suitable to even be at the front lines.

The rules about guild formations stated the following. First of all, there must be at least 5 people to be able to form a guild. Secondly there must be an established leader. There were optional additions such as coming up with uniforms and a guild banner. It was not that hard at all to form a guild, the hard part would be maintaining it. The larger guilds typically had a system of leadership organization that included subdivisions and sub leaders.

"I've noticed you two have been able to keep up with the front lines very well, so there is an important question I must ask you. Will you join my guild? You do not have to get back to me quickly. Take your time and consider the possibilities you will have in store once you join my guild. I am looking for strong players, and you two have managed to prove your strength."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Are you sure the guy isn't a stalker?!" Klein screams out.

The girls as well as Klein and the others finished their meal at their restaurant and were making their way to the teleportation portal.

"He doesn't seem it like it." Mikoto shrugs her shoulders.

Asuna recalled that as soon as Heathcliff presented his request to the girls, he told the girls where they could find him the next day. He said that he would be at the same restaurant tomorrow so that they could tell him whether or not they accept or reject his guild request.

"He's a lot older than you two; I hope he isn't secretly some creepy pervert at all." Klein grumbles.

"Klein-san, you're the oldest one out of all of us. I hope that you're not a closet pervert." Touma points out. The other Fuurinkazan members lightly chuckle.

"O-oy!" The red samurai looks slightly outraged. "I am not a pervert!"

"Anyways…" Touma gets back on track with the current topic. "What was your impression on this Heathcliff guy?"

"His eyes, they were so serious." Asuna utters. "It was as if he was capable of staring into our souls."

"That guy sure does seem like he could be a real leader. Though not as awesome as me!" Klein points to himself proudly.

"I really do see the sincerity in his tone and expression." Mikoto adds in. "If another guild is created that means the front lines could be more organized."

Asuna remembers what Kirito told her after the first floor battle. Kirito was the black swordsman who showed off his impressive skills early on in the game. He was the so called beater of Aincrad. Though Asuna did not believe that he was a cold hearted beater at all.

'_If someone you trust invites you to join a guild, don't turn it down.'_

Those were the words that he left behind to her.

She was now wondering if Kirito ever joined a guild or not. He seemed like a solitary type of person. Asuna shakes her head a bit, since she had other important things on her mind other than the whereabouts of Kirito.

"That Heathcliff guy has been pretty noticeable in the boss battle. He's really good with his sword and shield." Klein remarks while trying to remember other things about Heathcliff.

Asuna recalls how in the boss battles, Heathcliff had been a strong and powerful presence compared to the rest of the front liners. However he did not do much that would make him greatly standout such as speak out during the raid meetings or give out orders during a raid. He definitely looked like a man one should not try to cross swords with.

"If that guy that strong creates a guild, I bet his guild would be strong too." Touma adds in while scratching the back of his head.

"Mikoto and I are probably one of the few front liners who aren't in a guild yet, which is probably why we were easy to pick from."

Asuna wondered why Klein or Touma never asked for her and Mikoto join Fuurinkazan. Was it because they only had males in their guild? Or that they did not want to pressure the girls to join them? She was relieved to hear Klein not to completely dismiss Heathcliff's request.

(**Author's Note**: In this story, Heathcliff will use the Holy Sword unique skill later. For now he is using a high class shield and sword)

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next day when the Aincrad newspaper came out, there were a few interesting headlines.

First, it was about the downfall of The Army. The Army was left to wallow in its humiliating defeat after the loss of many members during the boss fight. They were no longer considered a clearing group and made base at the Starting City.

Apparently some individuals already speculated beforehand that The Army's downfall was about to come. Klein even remarked that it was no surprise such a thing happen because of how bull headed their leader, Kibaou was. Kibaou was viewed as a foolish individual that valued pride over preparation.

Further bad news included the sudden decrease of front line members. It was reported that because of the outstanding number of deaths from the 25th floor, many front liners quit. Currently the front lines lost two-thirds of its force. There were times when the paper included a death count from a boss raid, but it would have been too cruel to include it this time.

Another interesting piece of news was the announcement of a new guild formed. The new guild's name was The Knights of Blood, founded by Heathcliff. Usually the newspaper did not include news on guilds unless it was something that truly stood out. The reason why The Knights of Blood made it in the paper because of it was first of all a front line guild and second of all, it was rumored that it had strong members.

Meanwhile Fuurinkazan along with Mikoto and Asuna were at the house they rented on the 17th floor. Right now only Touma, Klein, Mikoto and Asuna were in the dining room, all reading the Aincrad newspaper at the same time.

"Looks like it'll take a while before we see The Army again. I always thought those guys had a certain annoying arrogance." Klein utters.

"You say that like it's a good thing." Touma adds in. "With The Army gone, that means we have less players to help clear the front lines. Many other players suddenly abandoned the front lines as well." He sighs. "Such misfortune."

"I sort of can't blame them for ditching the clearing efforts. We all can agree that the 25th floor was a complete nightmare." Mikoto flips a page of the newspaper. "The monsters were unbelievably challenging and we've all nearly died multiple times." She says the last part with a tired sigh.

"Tell me about it! I almost lost my life in one of those crazy sand traps. Thank goodness you guys all had my back."

"We always do leader." Touma smiles nervously.

"No matter what, we all agree to continue to tread forth at the front lines right!"

"Right!" Everybody resounds proudly.

"Good, because there are a lot of people counting on us to free them from this nightmare. A lot of people don't have the guts to go through danger like we do. So we have to be the ones to carry on hope, hope that there is still a chance for freedom."

"Hope…" Asuna utters that word to herself. She was sure that whenever there was news about a floor being cleared, it renewed hope in the other players. It meant that there were people who were not willing to give up so easily. A ray of hope was always strong enough to shine through a current of fear.

"If I quit now, that means I will be betraying my own values." Mikoto states strongly.

"I am overall thankful that you let us party with your guild Klein-san." Asuna smiles towards Klein's direction.

"No problem. Speaking of guilds, did you consider Heathcliff's offer? The Knights of Blood sounds like a really neat guild you and Mikoto could join. It even made it in the newspaper!"

"N-not that we don't want to be rid of you two so easily! We're just saying that we will encourage your decision no matter what." Touma interjects.

Asuna and Mikoto look at each other and then nod at the same time. Asuna was positive that they made the right decision.

"Well we talk about it last night with each other and we decided…" Mikoto begins.

"…We will join the Knights of Blood." The two girls utter at once.

A beat.

"Of course we can still keep in contact with your guild. After all, you did us a tremendous favor by rescuing us that time." Mikoto follows through with her statement.

"We'll also be moving out of here and we're extremely thankful for your hospitality." Asuna smiles kindly.

"Aw shucks thanks." Klein blushes a bit out of flattery.

"How did you two come up with that decision?" Touma asks them.

"The way Heathcliff delivered his message greatly impacted us. We still remember that look in his eyes, the way he spoke and how he held himself. It was like he was a great leader and he was truly trying to create a strong guild that would be an inspiration to others." Asuna sums up together her perspective on Heathcliff. Even though the man was an enigma, he held himself and his words with dignity.

"We want to be part of that inspirational effort. We want to be able to instigate more spirit and fervor within the front liners." Mikoto inputs in as well.

"You two are truly noble people. I look forward to the great things you achieve." Klein gives them a proud thumbs up.

"We are grateful for your care Klein-san and Touma-san."

"S-sure no problem."

"I have to admit, I'll miss eating your cooking." Mikoto admits to Touma while turning her eyes away.

Asuna giggles a bit when she sees a slight blush on her friend's face.

"Well I hope you two will continue to advance your cooking skills." Touma gives Mikoto a friendly pat on the back.

"Of course, I want to someday cook something that I can be proud of."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was not too hard for the girls to find Heathcliff. He was still in the town area and his appearance stood out compared to the other players. Heathcliff was after all a tall man.

"I am honored to hear that you two have accepted my invitation to join the Knights of Blood. Let's do our best to make our guild the best."

"Yes sir!" They both say with enthusiasm.

"Very good." He smiles pleased. "Asuna-kun, I know you just joined but I must ask a special favor from you. I cannot possibly manage all of my guild's affairs of my own so I will need to assign a sub leader."

Heathcliff then pauses and stares straight into Asuna's eyes. It was a type of stare that could send chills down her spine but she did not feel afraid. No, it was as if he was willing to trust her with something valuable.

"I want you to be the Knights of Blood sub leader Asuna-kun. Will you help me?"

"…" Asuna was speechless. Why did somebody she hardly knew want to hand her such an enormous responsibility? She felt that she did not stand out that much compared to the rest of the front liners. Perhaps there were other worthy individuals than just her. She was wondering if she should take this opportunity, think of it as a chance to grow as a person.

Back in the real world she did not do extracurricular activities. She hardly did any real leadership work. Most of her days were spent studying in her room, trying to please her parents and live up to their expectations.

"I think you have what it takes Asuna." Mikoto says with a helpful smile.

"Sounds like Mikoto-kun supports my decision." Heathcliff forms an interested expression.

"I believe you are just the right person to help lead the Knights of Blood." Heathcliff says with the utmost confidence. "I can tell that you are a calculating person who is very insightful."

It was true that Asuna was good at coming up with strategies and thinking ahead. When it was just her and Mikoto fighting together, it was Asuna who usually took gave out the instructions and analyzed the situation. In SAO she unlocked her potential for leadership and insight.

"Well I'm afraid that I might let you down leader." Asuna admits shyly.

"Do not be afraid of failure, for failure is how we learn. I believe in you and so does your good friend Mikoto-kun." The leader of the KoB reassures Asuna with a smile. "There will be a meeting in a few hours, I'll send you two the coordinates."

Heathcliff opens up his window and messages the two girls the coordinates to the meeting location. He also presses onto a few more buttons that send out guild invitations to Asuna and Mikoto.

Asuna sees the request appearing before her gives her the option to accept or deny joining the Knights of Blood.

She presses onto the accept button. Asuna looks over at Mikoto who just accepted the request as well. A guild icon appears above Mikoto's health meter.

"Looks like we're official members of the Knights of Blood." Mikoto smiles confidently. "Looks like I'll be in your care now Ms. Sub Leader." She grins towards Asuna's direction.

"You don't have to address me so formally now." Asuna grins as well.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The coordinates lead Asuna and Mikoto to a cottage. When they were outside the door, a teenage boy opens the door and examines the two girls. The boy was probably not too much older than the two girls.

"Welcome to the Knights of Blood meeting, take a seat anywhere you like."

The boy smiles as he gestures them to go inside.

The cottage looked like it was someone's home. There were many chairs available for sitting.

During the meeting there were about 15 people other than Mikoto and Asuna. The two of them definitely stood out because they were much more males than females. At least they were not the only girls because there was another girl within the group.

It was about a few minutes past the designated meeting time. The only person everybody noticed was not present was Heathcliff. Suddenly the door opens and Heathcliff walks in. His dramatic appearance made everybody quiet immediately.

Heathcliff clears his throat, meaning that the meeting would now commence. He goes towards the middle of the room, where everybody's eyes could focus towards him.

"I have assembled you all here because I believe each and every one of you has the potential to make this guild great. All of you are here because you deserve it. Each of you has worked very hard and obtained admirable levels and skills. The reason why I formed the Knights of Blood is to create a front line guild that could unite all the other front line players. Right now the front line players are disillusioned and disorganized. We all suffered a great blow from the last floor fight. It is not easy to deal with losing one's comrades or realizing that things are and will get more difficult."

The way Heathcliff spoke was very inspiring. He had a strong voice and his eyes did not waver at all. His eyes were overwhelming, eyes of a leader.

"It is no laughing matter that the front line efforts have lost many members. We cannot allow people to lose hope. We cannot allow people to give up so easily because so many others have. We cannot create another tragedy. That is why the Knights of Blood must exist. We must show the others that we cannot give up hope yet! Our strength will remind them that they are fighting for. Will all of you help me? I cannot promise a brighter future, but I can promise that I will fight for one."

Heathcliff's voice boomed mightily. His eyes became even fiercer and his complexion even more enthusiastic.

Everybody in the room cheered and clapped afterwards. Every single soul in that room became filled with inspiration. It was as if they had forgotten the fresh horrors of the 25th floor.

"Now that we have a clear goal in mind, we have to get down to administrative business. For this guild to function I require the assistance of others. I already have thought up of a member in here who should become the guild's sub leader. The sub leader will be the second in command. They will have a vast amount of responsibilities such as coming up with strategies for the boss raids and assigning groups."

Most of the occupants in the room muttered excitedly with one another. Who among them would be the chosen sub leader? How did Heathcliff decide who to choose?

Asuna and Mikoto looked at each other, knowing what was going to happen next.

"The Knights of Blood sub leader will be … Asuna-kun."

Asuna's insides jumped when she heard her name. Even though she knew her name would be coming up, she was still nervous.

Everybody in the room besides Mikoto was muttering to each other things such as "who is this Asuna?" or "this person better be strong."

Asuna immediately stood up from her seat, which made all eyes go on her. Since many of the room's occupants were male, they looked at her with interested eyes.

She notices Heathcliff's eyes stare immediately stare straight into hers. It was as if he was giving her an approving expression.

"Asuna-kun, you should introduce yourself."

The auburn hair girl takes a deep breath before she speaks.

"My name is Asuna and I am a rapier user. I have been working very hard to always improve on my sword skills and speed."

Before she takes her seat again, a hand raises up and an adult man asks.

"Excuse me leader." He addressed Heathcliff. "Can you tell us why you chose Asuna to be our sub leader?"

"I definitely do not regret joining the Knights of Blood especially with that cute girl around."

Asuna could hear one of the males whisper. She tries to pay no attention to it.

"From the way I saw her fight the last floor boss, I could tell that she has a certain untapped leadership quality. I sensed great potential from her. Now that I assigned her to be sub leader, I know that bring out her full potential."

"Oh I see…" The man did not look entirely convinced by Heathcliff's explanation.

"Once we have more members, I will assign more sub division leaders."

Heathcliff looks like he is prepared to leave.

"Asuna-kun, be sure to assign everybody their respective groups before they head out to clear the combat zone. I have to head out to do further business so I leave you all in her care." Heathcliff exited in a quick fashion.

"Yes leader!" Even though Asuna was compliant with the order, she couldn't help but wonder

_Why isn't he doing the leading right now? _

She immediately gets up and takes the center spot, where Heathcliff was just a few seconds ago. The members were all muttering to each other, wondering why their leader was entrusting the guild in the hands of a sub leader.

Asuna knew she had to gain everybody's trust as soon as possible. It was the only way they would respect and obey her.

"Even though we all may not know one another, we are all need to rely on each other. We have to rely on each other for support. That means that everybody must be able to trust each other. Trust is the most essential part to any group relationship."

Asuna was in a way speaking like Heathcliff was just earlier. She was using a lot of "we's" and reiterating the same phrase in different ways. Right now she was trying to gain the respect from them. She was not as inspiring or vocal as Heathcliff, but she still had to try.

For the next half hour she was able to have each member introduce themselves along with the weapon they use and they consider being the strongest thing about them. Eventually she organizes 3 parties, taking into accounts everybody's strengths and their weapon style.

Asuna of course put herself in a group with Mikoto; despite the fact that she knew the males all wanted at least one girl in every group.

The 3 parties leave at once together and head on out to the combat zone. The organization of the parties ended up being effective.

Asuna was definitely able to earn the respect of her peers. They were especially impressed at how fast she could execute her linear strikes.

"Your speed is so amazing!" Ariadne, the other female Knights of Blood member compliments.

"It's like you're moving as fast as lightning."

"More like she's as fast as a lightning flash."

Mikoto's skills were also becoming well known in the Knights of Blood as well. Mikoto excelled at using her shield and at delivering powerful slashes. She and Asuna often switched off with each other whenever they faced against mobs. It was usually first Asuna delivering some fast linear strikes following up with Mikoto executing powerful sword attacks.

The two girls were nearly neck and neck in terms of swordsmanship.

Asuna had her speed while Mikoto had her tenacious power. At this point Mikoto was learning higher leveled sword techniques than Asuna was. Many of Mikoto's broadsword techniques were impressive though they required a lot of practice.

Eventually a group found the location of the 26th floor boss and immediately alerted the rest of the front liners. The boss raid meeting took place inside a tavern called "The Black Boot."

Those willing to participate for the upcoming boss battle were already in the tavern at the agreed time. Even a certain black swordsman was present as well.

Everybody in the room looked sullen and down. Their expressions looked like they were saying "we want to give up so badly."

A minute later the door widely opens.

The members of the newly formed Knights of Blood go into the room dramatically. Their red and white uniforms were simply breathtaking and aweing. The uniforms made the Knights of Blood members look very brilliant and outstanding.

The front liners were whispering to each other excitedly.

Asuna then walks in afterwards. Her appearance was like a breath of fresh air. A very much needed breath of fresh air.

Her outfit stood out compared to the rest of her KoB members because of her red skirt and sleeveless

Mikoto was dressed similarly to Asuna. Except Mikoto had her shoulders covered and her outfit had a different pattern.

Asuna noticed how every man's eyes were on her. She knew that she was a beautiful girl but did not enjoy the attention from the males.

"My name is Asuna and I am the sub leader of the Knights of Blood. I will be leading this boss raid meeting. Several of my members served as scouts and they returned back with very valuable information."

For the remainder of the meeting Asuna explained everything there was to know about the boss. She made sure to cover everything because she wanted to leave a good impression. Asuna was pretty much the one carrying the guild's future right now.

Throughout the presentation, there were a few questions from the other players but Asuna was able to effectively answer them. It was as if she was a born leader.

The boss battle would be tomorrow and everything was all set up. The different squads were formed as well as other leaders for the operation. Asuna would be the main leader of the raid, meaning that she would not participate in as much combat as the others.

When the meeting ended, everybody left the tavern besides Mikoto and Asuna.

"Want to head back to our room right now?" Asuna asks her friend.

"Yeah sure, You're probably mentally drained after running that meeting." Mikoto responds.

Asuna and Mikoto had been staying at an inn called "The Three Flags." The two girls shared a 2 bedroom room. Right after the meeting they went back to their room and Asuna immediately plops down on her bed.

"That was such an intense meeting…" The rapier user sighs.

"I say you did a good job." Mikoto comments as she accesses her window to change into casual clothing.

"Yeah I suppose I did. At least nobody seemed to distrust my judgment and planning."

"If anybody did oppose your plan, the rest of the KoB would back you immediately. We all respect you Miss Sub-leader."

"I told you not to be so formal around me."

"Though…" Asuna's eyes sink to the ground. "If anybody dies, I feel like it will be my fault."

"Relax, it can't be helped if deaths occur. If we all got super depressed because of a comrade's death, then we'd all still be on the first floor."

"Yeah you're right. As Klein-san said, we must keep fighting onwards."

Asuna holds her two fingers out to access her clothing inventory. Before she changes into her casual clothing, she examines her Knight of Blood uniform she had on. The long haired girl feels a bit embarrassed at how short her skirt was and how much skins he was showing.

"Do you think the Knights of Blood uniform makes me look too… feminine?" Asuna smiles nervously.

"Too feminine? Well it certainly makes you look cuter if that's what you mean. Maybe that's why Heathcliff chose you to be sub leader." Mikoto grins while shaking her head.

"He chose be to be sub leader because I'm cute?"

"Well you did manage to captivate everybody's attention in the tavern when you entered in. I bet it won't be long until you become a celebrity."

"But you do know what being a celebrity is like, right Mikoto-chan?"

"Ah yes, back at Tokiwadai many girls I did not know would wave and stare at me whenever I walk down a hallway. Though our situations are actually different. You're attracting the attention of males, so I'd say you'll become an idol."

Asuna eyes slightly widen when she Mikoto calls her an idol like figure.

"I didn't sign up to become an idol." The rapier sighs yet again.

"Who knows, you might even get an Asuna fan club up and running."

"Just like how there's a Misaka Mikoto fan club back at school?"

"They're probably disbanded now since I'm gone."

The two girls look at each other and lightly laugh.

It had been a while since they last discussed life back in the real world.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Over fifty players came for the upcoming battle against the boss. It was actually a much higher turnout than Asuna and Mikoto anticipated. After the fiasco with the previous boss raid, they thought people would have chickened out.

The players all get together in their formation and open the door. They all walk in, expecting the worse.

At the furthest end of the room was the boss. They could see a giant demonic looking knight wearing black jagged armor. The knight's named was "The Dark Flame." Its eyes glows an eerie red color and its weapon of choice was very deadly. The Dark Flame gets up from its chair as soon as it saw the players entering in its domain. The scary part about this boss was how it was wielding a mace with lots of sharp spikes.

The Dark Flame also had some minions present as well. The minions were five humanoid dragon warriors that were embodied with flames. Any physical contact with the dragon would mean instant damage because of their flames.

"Get ready everybody!" Asuna shouts out.

The front liners all give out a war cry before charging into battle. Even though their spirits were still shaken from the previous boss fight, they still had the courage to keep fighting on.

The first tactic Asuna had was to have several squads hold the humanoid dragon warriors at bay while the tank type players would grab the attention of the boss. Tank players were the ones who were huge in size and could withstand more hits than other players. While the tanks distracted the boss, the speed type players would hit the boss at its weak spots and dash away to a safe spot.

Once all the dragon minions were taken out, the rest of the front liners joined in on trying to defeat the boss. At this point in the fight, the boss only had one more health bar left.

The Dark Flame keeps on swinging around its mace, which is able to successfully impact upon a few of the players. These players are sent flying across the room and suffer a 20% health decrease. Players with shields are able to block the mace attack though suffer a 5% health loss because of the brunt impact of the mace with their shields.

"Those of you whose health are in the red zone, go to the back of the room!" Asuna shouts out. "There are still plenty of us who are green or yellow in health who can keep fighting."

At 25% health left is when a player's health meter reaches the red zone. A few players follow Asuna's orders and leave the fighting to the others.

Asuna did not want people in low health to be risking their lives fighting against the boss since one more hit could cost their lives. Right now her health was still in the green region because she had been shouting out orders instead of directly participating in the fighting. Every now and then she did sprint towards the boss to attack only when the vanguard's offense was inefficient.

Mikoto's health was in the yellow region because she was at the vanguard. Mikoto uses her shield to block another incoming strike from hitting the non-shield using players. Afterwards Mikoto sprints towards the boss and unleashes the broadsword 6 hit combo technique-"The Pendulum." Every single strike of this technique was more powerful than its previous one.

Players on the support squads watch in awe at how Mikoto powerfully attacks the boss, each strike eating up more HP.

After Mikoto finishes her technique, she faces a one second cool down as a result. In any Aincrad fight, one second could mean life or death. Fortunately two tanks draw the attention of the boss, allowing Mikoto to cool down and then return back to formation with the other shield users.

With the boss having barely any health left, Asuna tries to rally up everybody's spirits.

"Alright everybody, let's go for one final attack!"

Some players cry out loud as they rush towards the boss to hack away its health.

Asuna decides to join in on the fighting frenzy. She sprints towards the boss, with her body crouched down low to increase her sprint's efficiency.

Asuna's sword glows green as she executes a flurry of linear strikes at the boss' left knee. One strike after the other was able to successfully hit the boss at remarkable speeds.

The other front liners all stare amazed at Asuna's flashing speed with her sword skills.

With one final linear strike the boss was completely defeated and dispersed into multiple polygons. The words CONGRATULATIONS appears making everybody resound in joy.

Asuna pants heavily while resting on one knee. She puts her rapier back in its sheath and sees there is a message in front of her. It was a message telling her that she got the last hit bonus.

Mikoto walks right up to Asuna and asks. "What did you get?"

Asuna opens up the message and reveals the item _Solstice Fang_.

Solstice Fang was a beautifully crafted rapier with decent stats and durability. Asuna could have not asked for a better drop item.

Even though Asuna was not a heavy participant of the fighting, most of the front liners were happy that their cute boss raid leader got the last hit item. With Asuna's careful planning and coordination, nobody's life was lost in this major fight. It was a gigantic victory for the front liners.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

It was not too long later that Asuna earned the nickname "The Flash." Her reputation as the Knights of Blood sub leader made her a very notable person among the front liners. The reason for her nick name was because of her impressive speed with the rapier. Asuna's rapier strikes were as quick as a flash.

At the moment the two girls were having some down time. They had just finished clearing another floor and were relaxing before another meeting with the other KoB members.

They were practicing their cooking skill in at the inn's kitchen. Asuna and Mikoto had their aprons on and were stirring up a pot full of soup.

"So how does it feel to be a celebrity?" Mikoto grins amused.

"It is sort of annoying have people whisper to themselves whenever I'm in their presence. Though I just ignore it and continue my business. Though you know I'm not the only popular figure in Aincrad." Asuna takes her eyes of the pot and looks towards Mikoto.

"But I'm not as cute as you." Mikoto admits. "Which is what makes you way more popular than me. You know that you've won all of the popularity contests so far."

Ever since Asuna's fame spread to the lower floors, the newspapers had a popularity contest. Mikoto was also included in the contest but it was Asuna who swept the competition. This was one of the first times somebody outshined Mikoto in terms of popularity.

"Yeah I know…" Asuna sighs. "The newspaper reporters always want to get me to do an interview but I always tell them I'm too busy."

"Haha I don't blame you for coming up with excuses. Knowing how newspapers work, they'll probably twist up your words. Even though you're better known that I am, there's still people who recognize me and go out of their way to get my autograph." Mikoto sighs. "It reminds me of being back at Tokiwadai."

Asuna was not the only one with a popularized nickname. Mikoto earned the nickname "The Blue Bolt." Her shield was blue and her sword strikes were perceived to be as powerful as thunder bolts. She still kept the shield she earned from the loch ness monster quest because it was very durable. Mikoto was also known for being able to her brilliant mastery of many sword hit combinations. Mikoto and Asuna were also known for being the dynamic duo "The Flash and the Bolt."

-New Year's Day-

January 1st, 2024

The Knights of Blood had a rather entertaining party just the other night to welcome in the New Year. Everybody had been stuck in Aincrad for so long that it felt so natural to celebrate holidays in the game as if they were back in their real homes. There was a lot of alcohol served, but in SAO it was not possible to get drunk, which was half the fun of drinking alcohol.

When the two girls finally woke up, they made their way to the restaurant inside the inn and picked up the Aincrad newspaper.

Mikoto was sipping onto a cup of hot cocoa and when she reads the newspaper, she nearly chokes on her beverage.

"Are you alright?" Asuna looks at her friend with concern.

"Read the headline!" Mikoto blurts out as she pounds her chest and coughs.

Asuna grabs the newspaper and her eyes go wide. She could feel her entire body shaking uncontrollably.

"Wha-wha-what is this madness?"

The New Year edition of the Aincrad newspaper had its front head line article reading **"**_**New Player Killing Guild Strikes on New Year's Eve."**_

"What kind of sick twisted person forms up a guild just to kill other people?" Mikoto speaks clearly now that her throat is cleared. She also had a hint of fear in her tone.

They spend the next few minutes in silence reading over the dreadful details about this new player killing guild.

-New Year's Eve on the 35th floor-

The small guild called "The Azure Panthers" was having an outdoor New Year's Eve celebration in the field at a viewing area.

It was a mid-level guild that only had ten members. All of the members were friends back in the real world and bought SAO together when it first came out. The Panthers decided to have a party outdoors instead of back in the town area because all of the restaurants and taverns would be really busy and expensive.

The area they were at had a small forest very close by. Fortunately it was a place where no monsters were expected to be around, which is why the Azure Panthers felt like they would face no imminent danger.

Right now all of the players were having a picnic, there was lots of food laid out on a large blanket and everybody was sitting down.

"Hey Auron, do you have a New Year's Resolution?" A small orange haired player named Eric asks.

Auron, the grey haired leader of the Azure Panthers, smiles back and responds. "Yup, to stay alive."

His response made the rest of his guild members laugh.

"Yeah I think that's everybody's goal in SAO." Eric smirks. "C'mon, isn't there anything else on your mind you want to do this year?"

Auron thinks about it for a few seconds.

_I want to ask Christy out. _

He thought to himself. Christy was one of the members of the Azure Panthers and the second in command. She was a pretty girl with straight red hair that reached her shoulders. Auron takes a brief glance over at Christy who was right next to him and decides not to reveal his true thoughts.

"Well, I hope we manage to all stay good friends." He replies back in a strong tone.

"Good answer." Christy smiles.

Auron smiles at her direction and feels his cheeks becoming warmer. He snaps out of it by standing up and raising his glass of apple cider.

"Cheers everybody! May we be fortunate for this year."

Everybody else stands up and puts up their glasses as well. "Cheers!"

The Azure Panthers clink glasses and then drink their beverage.

Once Auron finishes his drink he looks over at Christy's direction. He gulps nervously, gathering up the courage to do what he wanted to do for a long time.

"Christy, can I talk to you in private?" Auron asks her.

Christy puts down her glass of apple cider. "Sure, what is it?"

"It's about erm…" Auron comes up with a lie. "Guild business, something we need to discuss; just the two of us."

"Uh okay sure."

Auron leads the way towards the forest and Christy follows after him.

"Don't spend so much time making out in the forest!" Eric calls out to them while chuckling.

The others Azure Panthers chuckle while Christy and Auron blush.

The two of them continue making their way into the forest. A minute into the forest walk, Auron stops in his tracks and takes a deep sigh.

_This is it, I am going to man up and ask Christy out. If she rejects me then I will look like a total idiot_

Auron opens his mouth facing in Christy's direction. However nothing came out of his mouth.

"What is it Auron, you seem pretty nervous." Christy looks at him worried.

"Well it's just er…" Auron gathers every ounce of courage in his being to try and confess his feelings for her.

_It's not or never!_

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" A blood curling scream pervades the air.

The atmosphere suddenly becomes very eerie.

"That sounds like it's coming from our picnic spot!" Christy interrupts Auron. She opens up her weapons inventory and equips herself with her sword. Christy immediately dashes off with Auron following right behind her.

"Maybe Eric played a prank on one of the other girls." Auron huffs while running after Christy. He was very much hoping that it was just a harmless prank. Auron's gut was telling him that something bad was going to happen.

Once he and Christy make it out of the forest, they were left appalled. No matter how much they were mentally prepared for the worse, this was definitely worse than they anticipated.

A group of black cloaked individuals had their weapons out, surrounding his helpless guild members. None of his guild members had their weapons out because they all thought they would be safe here. Only Christy and Auron were equipped with their weapons.

"Let the slaughter begin!" One of the cloaked individuals cackles out madly.

The other individuals whoop out happily and begin chopping away at the Azure Panthers.

"AHHH!"

"Please stop! We'll give you our Col!"

"HAVE MERCY ON US!"

The Azure Panthers scream out while their health was being hacked away. One of the members was impaled with a jagged dagger; another had his head chopped off with an axe. The Panthers were like lamb for slaughter.

The massacre occurring right before Auron's eyes made him extremely sick to his stomach. His entire body was frozen, and his body shaking uncontrollably. Were these strangers really breaking a taboo of SAO?

Eric was trying to fight back against the cloaked individuals. He sees Auron and Christy and shouts out to them.

"RUN, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

Those were his last words before he was finished off.

Before Auron could move, he sees Christy sprinting forth at the scene before them.

"CHRISTY NO!" He tries to run after her but it was as if his legs were glued.

"ARGGHHHHHH!" Christy roars out loud like an angry animal. She had gone completely into a berserk state.

"Oh how cute, we have a fighter here." One of the individuals chuckle amused. "Let us put you out of your misery."

Christy's sword shines a blue color as she executes a sword technique at the individual closest to her. That particular individual is able to block her attack. However 3 more cloaked beings surround her and slash at her at once.

Christy screams out in pain, and a few seconds later disperses into a thousand polygons.

Auron, the leader of the Azure Panthers was the only one left. He felt like he failed them as a leader. He was the one who suggested that they have an outdoor party instead of hanging out at an inn. He was the one who lead his entire guild to its doom.

The shock of seeing Christy die before his eyes made tears pour down his eyes. It wasn't until a few months ago that he realized he developed feelings for her. He even summoned enough courage today to try and ask her out.

"Just one more left boys, let's send him to where his friends are at!"

In less than a minute Auron, the grey haired boy, was killed as well.

(**Author's Note**: Read the ending of the previous chapter to see how he was killed).

"WE ARE LAUGHING COFFIN! NOTHING CAN ESCAPE US!" Poh, the leader of the red guild Laughing Coffin proclaims proudly.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Mikoto and Asuna feel their minds go numb after they read the article.

The article provided information on how the players with the red icon mean that they are part of a player killing guild. The PK guild, Laughing Coffin was represented with a Western Coffin with a mysterious smiling face. The newspaper told readers how they are extremely dangerous and wanted. It looked like the only force strong enough to deal with them was the front liners.

"How could those red players wipe out an entire guild without remorse?" Asuna utters, her voice was shaking.

Murder was heinous crime that nobody in Aincrad dared do until now. Asuna did not think it was possible for Aincrad to be more dangerous that it was already was.

**Author's Note**: This has been my longest written chapter yet, I am very pleased with how it turned out.

The showdown with Laughing Coffin will happen within the next few chapters. Though my updates will be slow because I will be back in school and each of my chapters takes a long time to write up.

Any matter of events within this fanfiction that happens to match another fanfiction is merely by coincidence. I just wanted to get that out there.


	6. Cackling Coffin

**Chapter 6**: Cackling Coffin

Aincrad 56th floor: Pani

A girl with beautiful flowing chest nut colored hair and dressed in a red and white uniform stood in a field of grass. A gentle wind blew through the area, the calm before the storm.

However she was not alone.

Ten feet across from her was a boy with black unkempt hair who was adorned with his trademark black coat and gloves. He was known as The Black Swordsman who used a one handed sword style with no shield.

Asuna, famously titled as The Flash got into her battle stance. Her hand hovered above her rapier, ready to unsheathe it at any split second. The boy across from her also was prepared to take out his sword as well. She wondered why he had such an unorthodox style; many players either used a sword and shield or had a style unfit to use a shield.

The two fighters stared at each other. Asuna had on her fiery expression, the expression that meant she was completely serious. Kirito however had on a calm complexion. As if he was completely solemn.

_This guy… he just seems to make me angry._

There was a group of people watching the duel at a viewing distance. It was of course a highly anticipated event because it was going to be a clash between two notable fighters. Among these individuals were those who were genuinely worried about Asuna.

One of the individuals was Mikoto, who also wore the classic Knights of Blood red and white uniform. Next to her was Touma, who wore the red samurai outfit which was a representation of Fuurinkazan.

"I never thought this would actually happen." Touma sighed while shaking his head amused.

"Lately Kirito has been getting on her nerves. Her ideas and his just seem to clash a lot." Mikoto noted while keeping her eyes glued to the two people who were about to duel. The outcome would most likely have long term impacts.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Not too long ago…

Just earlier there was a meeting called for the front liners. Everybody met up in the area of Pani where there were stoned huts. There was one particular stone hut that was able to provide enough space for the front liners to be in.

The players were having a difficult time dealing with the particular field boss.

There was tension and uneasiness inside the stone room. Everybody was quiet and staring at each other uncomfortably. A variety of front liners came to meeting, such as those from the well-known Divine Dragon Alliance, Fuurinkazan, and even the usual solo players.

Asuna, who was one of the leaders of this meeting decided to break this tension by slamming her hand against the stone table in front of her.

"We'll lure the field boss into the village."

She uttered, without a shred of hesitation behind her voice. Her plan would entail leading the boss into the village which would make the boss attack the villagers and allow the players to kill it. However her planned required the sacrifice of innocent villagers, but she felt that action was justified since those villagers are just NPC's.

The Flash assumed that everybody would be fine with the idea since it would allow the players an easy opportunity to attack the dreaded boss. However her suggestion lead to a few surprised gasps and stares from the players. One player in particular walked forward from his original standing position and voiced his opinion.

Kirito, known as the beater, objected to the idea. Asuna could not stomach the reasoning that NPC's were alive. Even though she and the other players are only fragments of polygons and data right now, but they were truly alive since they have free will and are trying to get out of this death game. However the NPC's are programs that have limited set actions and can freely respawn when necessary. Why was Kirito defending them at all?

Shortly after the meeting adjourned with Asuna's frustration reaching a high level. This was not the first time that Kirito and she had their disagreements. Asuna knew that he was actually a good person because of how he purposefully diverted the animosity players felt towards the rest of the beta testers. He made himself become a disliked figure, which is how he became known as a cheating beta tester, aka a beater.

Several of the players within the stone hut had just left and Kirito was about to leave as well. However Asuna called after him.

"Kirito-san I need to talk to you." Asuna said with authority.

Kirito stopped in his tracks just as he heard her speak and immediately turned his attention back to her. A few of the other solo players who were on Kirito's side earlier stopped as well.

"What is it, Flash?" He said her nickname with a biting tone. It was obvious he was bitter about their spat earlier.

Asuna took a deep sigh before she continued.

"Things haven't been smooth between the two of us. Clearly we have differing views when it comes to facing against bosses and the types of tactics to use. Therefore I'd like to propose a duel."

The mention of a duel made the remaining people inside the room mutter amongst each other excitedly.

Kirito looked at her with surprised eyes.

"A duel?"

"Yes, we shall duel to see whose idea should be agreed upon at tomorrow's meeting. If I win, then we shall lure the field boss to attack the villagers. However if you win…"

The Flash hesitated when saying the last part.

"Then no NPC sacrifices will happen."

It seemed like such a waste of a plan if the NPC villagers could not be utilized as bait.

"I'll accept your duel, so when are we going to do this?"

During this meeting it was obvious that the KoB and several solo players rallied by Kirito had opposition with one another. So in order to settle their differences, the two sides agreed to send a representative and duel each other. The winning side would get the most influence for the upcoming strategy meeting.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Ten minutes later since that conversation, Kirito and Asuna met up at the empty field of Pani.

Most of the onlookers consisted of Asuna's loyal followers in the KoB or people who agreed with Kirito and did not want to have NPC's become sacrificial lambs.

"Who do you think is going to win?"

"I have no idea, I'm betting on our sub leader since she is definitely not weak."

"Nah I think the beater has a better chance. I heard that he took down a horde of Rowdy Gorillas back on floor 52."

There were all kinds of chattering going on, speculating who would be the winner.

"You've fought alongside Asuna all this time, you think she can win this?" Touma looked at Mikoto.

"Asuna is of course strong, she knows how to break through her opponent's defenses which is why she is a better fighter than I am. However Kirito is nobody to be trifled with since he is a very high leveled."

In order for any solo player to survive on the front lines, they had to be extremely hardworking and skilled. It was usually considered suicide to enter into a high leveled dungeon by yourself, which was why Kirito's solo style made him renowned throughout Aincrad.

"The first time I met him, he was definitely an extraordinary individual, though I couldn't help the feeling that he preferred solitude." Mikoto sighed as she recalled the time back on the first floor.

"Makes me wonder why he's never joined a guild. Klein would be more than happy to accept Kirito."

"I doubt he would join the KoB because of how he and Asuna tend to disagree with each other or the DDA because they have arrogant leaders."

Their attention turned back to Asuna and Kirito as their duel would begin very soon.

Asuna knew her speed would be her main advantage while Kirito's swordsmanship focused on power.

Kirito took out his sword that was resting on his back and Asuna took out her shining rapier. Right after that, Asuna sent Kirito the duel request and the black swordsman accepted. The duel was set to first strike mode. Whoever could make a clean direct hit would be declared the winner.

There was a timer that appeared above them, it was counting down from 10 seconds

10…9…8…

_I'm making the right decision. Even though that boy sometimes appears in my thoughts he just annoys me so much!_

7...6…5…

_I must purge myself of those kinds of thoughts. Personal feelings will only get in the way of clearing efforts._

4…3…2…

_There is a weakness in my heart right now, I cannot be distracted by anything else_

1…START!

Both players kicked off the ground and sped towards each other. First strike mode duels could either end in a quick fashion or take a while. However since this was a fight between two skilled players, it would probably take some time before either one of them got a clean hit.

Kirito made the first move by aiming a **Slant** slash right at Asuna that went from the bottom up. Fortunately Asuna's eyes were able to catch that incoming technique and she barely jumped back to avoid it. She decided to retaliate with a forward thrust with her rapier straight at Kirito's mid-section.

However her attack was not able to impact upon the black swordsman. Kirito was able to bring his sword in a defensive position and block the rapier's tip from hitting him. Asuna was actually impressed at how fast Kirito was able to switch from being offensive to defensive.

The two of them continued their back and forth exchange of attacks. Most of these attacks were met with extraordinary blocks. There were also moments when their reflexes allowed them barely escape from an incoming blade by inches.

Asuna's rapier lit a green color and she unleashed out a barrage of linear strikes. Linear was a basic rapier technique which the rapier would send forth multiple thrusts. At Asuna's advanced level of swordsmanship, her **Linear **strikes were barely visible to the eye and each strike left a green after image.

"That's why she's called the Flash." Mikoto smirked. The short haired girl knew how much hard work and training it took for Asuna to achieve such a high speed with linear.

The audience was rather excited seeing such display of speed from the Knights of Blood sub leader. However there was something else remarkable at the same time. Kirito was able to use his one handed sword to keep up with the incoming linear strikes. None of the strikes were able to get a direct hit on him, but one or two were able to scratch him.

Asuna was used to sparing against Mikoto who primarily used the shield to block Asuna's incoming attacks. It definitely was impressive how Kirito could keep up with her strikes, especially since he was without a shield and his sword was not that large sized.

Kirito was able to break away from the barrage by taking a small leap backwards. His sword then turned a bright color; the boy was preparing to unleash a sword skill.

"Haahhh!"

He gave out a small war cry as he charged towards Asuna. From the look in his eyes, he was definitely becoming more serious. Asuna was pleased to see that he was not taking their duel lightly, because she knew both of their reputations were on the line.

Kirito activated the one handed sword skill **Limitless Fury**, which was a 3 hit maneuver that had separate strikes develop power one strike after the other. Asuna did her best to dodge and parry off the initial strikes but the third strike was able to connect its full power and sent Asuna's feet sliding back. She was able to block it in a way that resulted in her to taking some damage, but not enough to lose the duel. Even though her rapier was not considered the perfect weapon to take on large attacks, she learned how to manipulate it in a way to reduce incoming damage.

She nearly fell down after the attack but managed to regain her composure. Right now her health bar and Kirito's were matching. Both had managed to nick off each other's health but the duel would reach a dangerous point once they reached deeper into the yellow zone.

One mistake could cost them this fight.

The Flash and the Black Swordsman were continuing their sword dance. One could consider it a dance because of the flurry of attacks each sent at each other and the advanced footwork and physical maneuvering required to keep up with the fast pace.

"I can't help but think, if those two partnered up, they would be an unstoppable combination." Mikoto couldn't help but let those thoughts escape out into words.

Touma nodded his head in agreement.

"Hm, I see what you mean."

"It's like their attacks complement each other kinda well. Asuna has her speed while Kirito has his reliable power and strength to back her up."

"If only those two actually got along, then maybe progress at the front lines could move a little bit faster." Mikoto said jokingly. "Though Kirito might be the only boy to ever match up with Asuna's pace."

WHOOSH!

Kirito's horizontal strike nearly hit Asuna but she ducked down just in time. Her body was now in a crouching position close to the ground. She planted her free hand onto the ground and executed a leg sweep technique. Right now she was utilizing her marital arts skill which was her secondary form of fighting.

The leg sweep maneuver was something surprising that onlookers were definitely not expecting. It was also a technique that even threw off Kirito. Of course the attack wasn't going to end the duel because only a sword attack could do that, but Asuna was trying to get an opening on Kirito.

Thanks to the successful leg sweep, the black swordsman was falling backwards. Asuna grinned with satisfaction. She was feeling the pleasure of fighting against a formidable opponent.

The rapier user was quickly trying to get up so that she could retaliate and end this duel, though she forgot that Kirito was extremely quick thinker.

Kirito manage to catch himself from falling by sticking his free hand out and using that to support himself up. Then quickly afterwards he used that free hand to push himself up from the ground, thus performing a one handed back flip. The black haired boy was quickly able to get himself back on his feet and regained his normal composure.

"I have to admit, you certainly surprised me Flash."

Kirito grinned widely. It was apparent that he was enjoying this fight as well. The thrill of a good battle, the tension of being put on the edge; those were the feelings that made strong fighters better.

Asuna gritted her teeth frustrated. Just before she could even reach to him and take advantage of the situation, Kirito managed to outmaneuver her. Despite her frustration, she was pleased to see how Kirito could adapt quickly when the circumstances were not in his favor.

Throughout this time, neither Asuna nor Kirito bothered to look up at the timer. When a person is brought into an intense situation, their sense of time is distorted. Neither of the fighters was aware of how long their duel had actually been.

Touma's eyes widened when he gazed up at the timer. It had been nearly 10 minutes since the duel began.

"This is just crazy…" He murmured.

"What did you say?" Mikoto looked at him curiously.

"Look at the time." Touma pointed to the timer above the sparring duo.

Mikoto's eyes went wide as well.

She then looked at the health meters of the two fighters. The two of them were still equally matched but their health was about to reach the 60% point. Their battle healing skill was attempting to keep up with the pace but Asuna and Kirito were exchanging quite a few minor hits.

"I feel like we're about to reach the climax of this duel very soon…"

Asuna and Kirito continued their back and forth battle of swords. Sword skills clashed together, feet scrapped against the ground, eyes not giving up their fiery intents.

Suddenly Kirito was about to attack at Asuna again and she reflexively blocked with her sword in a diagonal position in front of her.

However she realized her mistake, but it was already too late. Kirito was able to take advantage of the resulting opening and hit her with a mighty sword technique. The Black Swordsman pulled an overly realistic feint and she fell for it. During their ten minute duel, each of them pulled a few feints at one another, but this feint felt believable.

Asuna's health dropped down to 50% as a result of that hit.

**WINNER- KIRITO**

The words indicating the winner flashed above the two fighters.

The audience gasped surprise and then cheered out loud.

Kirito walked up to Asuna and offered his right hand to her.

"That was a good duel, let us hope that we can see eye to eye in the near future."

The Flash was devastated at the lost, but put on her 'sub-leader face.'

Asuna shook his hand, as a show of good faith.

"Likewise, I'm thankful that somebody of your top notch skills has been able to do much progress for the front lines."

The two players departed from each other. A small crowd gathered around Kirito, congratulating the boy on his win.

Asuna couldn't help but still think about that last feint Kirito did. The way he executed that feint was so realistic, as if he was going to pull out his trump card. She felt that he was truly holding back, hiding some other special skill. Though the rapier user shook off that suspicion and couldn't help but put one hand over her heart. It was beating rapidly and she realized that she could not purge herself from those feelings.

Kirito's sword was able to leave an impression on Asuna's heart.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Asuna was walking alongside with Mikoto while in the town area of the 56th floor. Nearly every person they passed by stared at Asuna and then quickly whispered to the people they were with. It was obvious why Asuna would be receiving a lot more attention than usual. The duel between the two fighters became such a popular topic of discussion among the front liners. Even though less than 20 people that witnessed their duel, the news spread around like wildfire.

Though the duel probably wouldn't make the headlines of the Aincrad newspaper, which is something Asuna was thankful for.

"Are you feeling alright?" Mikoto asked Asuna. It was clear that Mikoto was concerned how the loss would affect Asuna's spirits right now.

"Yeah I'm fine." Asuna nodded her head. It had been a long time she lost a duel, though that particular duel gave her a new found respect and even further feelings for the Black Swordsman.

"So it looks like we can't go with your plan tomorrow at the boss meeting."

"I made a deal and I must keep it."

Even though Kirito may seem like a detached person, his heart was in the right place. He actually cared about the wellbeing of those NPC's who aren't really considered living. Perhaps there was more to him than meets the eye. Somehow Asuna had the urge to understand what type of person he really is.

"E-excuse me Asuna-san!"

A voice called out.

Asuna and Mikoto turned their heads towards the person.

"Ah Rygar, what's wrong?"

Their attention was towards a fellow KoB member who was just running after them. Rygar was an 18 year old male with brown spikey hair and was always seen with a gentle smile.

"I-is it alright that I talk to Asuna-san privately." Rygar said in a shaky voice as he looked towards Mikoto.

The short haired girl's eyes widened surprised for a brief second and she obliged.

"Uh sure, I'll meet you later Asuna."

Mikoto waved bye and walked away. Asuna was meanwhile confused as to why Rygar would want to speak to her alone.

"P-please come with me…" The brown haired boy avoided Asuna's gaze.

Asuna followed him to a part of the town that had a clear field. The ten minutes that it took for them to walk over to this area was more or less awkward. Asuna tried asking him basic small talk questions such as how he was doing, his progress with floor clearing and whether or not he would be participating in the boss battle. Rygar was one of the middle ranked KoB members who did not always participate in boss battles and did not stand out too much.

Once they were underneath a tree, Rygar stopped in his tracks and turned towards Asuna. He had a completely determined look in his eyes.

"We've known each other for over six months and there's one thing that I've been working up to courage to say." Rygar's face looked like it was about to explode.

The boy then went to the ground on both knees.

"I really think you're an amazing girl, so WILL YOU MARRY ME?!"

Asuna's entire being was completely caught off guard. She looked into Rygar's eyes as he desperately stared into hers.

However…

"I'm sorry Rygar, I don't feel that way about you. I cannot accept your proposal."

The rapier user admitted truthfully. It would have been wrong for her to accept his proposal and not have mutual feelings for him.

Rygar slumped down even further and his face was towards the ground. He no longer could bear looking at Asuna.

"I'm sorry you had to hear something really embarrassing. Please forget what I just said." The boy uttered with the last of his strength.

Asuna could not say anything to reply back so she merely turned her back to him and walked away.

Of course she felt really bad for what happened, but she had no choice but to become the cold heart breaker.

Ever since she became the KoB subleader, her popularity sky rocketed. Not only was she a girl, which was already rare enough in the virtual world, but she was beautifully stunning. This was actually not her first time receiving a marriage proposal, this was the fourth incident.

The first time she got a proposal was on the 30th floor, when a random fan of hers gave her flowers and asked for her hand in marriage. She recalled being extremely devastated to have to hurt his feelings. It was an embarrassing moment since she was walking in a busy town area and suddenly was asked the question. She didn't even know who that person was, so she assumed he was just a major fan from the lower floors.

The other times were proposals from other front liners. This recent incident was actually different than the others since it was the first time somebody within her own guild asked her. Things were definitely going to be awkward between her and Rygar during their guild gatherings.

Now she needed to take her mind off what just happened. It would be troublesome if she was not completely focused during the clearing efforts or the strategy meetings. Usually she got her mind off distracting topics by going on quests or slicing up monsters.

There was actually a special quest that interested her. On the 35th floor, there was a special animal called the Fenny Fowl which apparently could be a tasty delicacy. As the name suggests the Funny Fowl is a type of feathery bird, but this bird is rumored to be very elusive and hard to catch. Asuna, being a cook at the side, wanted to find this bird and use her cooking skills to eat it. Good food was something she sorely missed from the real world.

Asuna sent a message to Mikoto that said:

**I am going to be out late, see you tomorrow.**

Whether on the battlefield or in town, the two girls were considered the best of friends. Asuna the Flash and Mikoto the Blue Bolt were quite the famous dynamic duo. Lately the Bolt had been occupied with Kamijou Touma during their free time. Asuna always felt that there was some sort of spark between those two individuals, and decided to support them from the background.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

Aincrad 35th floor: Arcus

The combat area of Arcus was in a mountainous type of setting. It involved a lot of endurance to keep going up and down different elevations while being wary of monsters. This was definitely a good place for the Fenny Fowl to hide at. Then again Asuna couldn't help but question why in the world would a fowl live in a mountainous region?

She had been scaling through the mountains for the past hour, and managed to defeat a few monsters that got in her way.

_Kirito… that boy sure is a strange one._

Asuna couldn't help but think at Kirito at a time like this. Other than her guild leader Heathcliff, she could attest that Kirito was the strongest swordsman in Aincrad. Even though he had the appearance of a cold hearted solo player, she somehow gained some interest in him. If things were different, how would their relationship be? Would they even have met at all if they never got stuck in SAO?

More time passed and Asuna was feeling slightly weary. Most of the day had been spent coming up with strategies to face against the boss monster. Those kinds of tasks were mentally tiresome, especially since she faced so much pressure being an influential leader. The lives of the front line fighters were her responsibility and so she had to harden her spirit. She tried not to let every single death get to her or else that would ruin her concentration, anything that was deemed as an obstacle towards her tasks had to be swept away. But Kirito was a different issue that could not be hidden away. Today's spar slightly broke her cold mental armor.

She made it into a deeper part of Arcus, however she had no idea she fell into dangerous territory.

"Oya? To think we managed to find such delicious prey out here." An ominous voice spoke.

Asuna immediately turned around. She saw three cloaked figures just within her viewpoint.

"A girl huh, I can't wait to hear her scream."

"Now now, let's not get too excited fellas."

Each of the cloaked figures took out their respective weapons. One of them had a dagger, another wielded a scimitar sword, and the third had a short axe.

From the way they were chuckling, Asuna had a good idea who they were. She could feel her feet legs shaking but she knew this was no time to succumb to fear. Her suspicions were proven true once she saw the red icons above their heads. These cloaked figures were indeed part of the PK guild, Laughing Coffin. All of Aincrad was warned about Laughing Coffin's reputation right after New Year's Day. Ever since that day many players have been wary about venturing through the combat zones or they chose to travel in large parties.

Asuna had temporarily forgotten about the pervasive threat of Laughing Coffin because she was more occupied with clearing floors. Laughing Coffin generally stayed away from the front lines since that was where the strongest players would be. The players from the lower floors sent out pleas to the front liners to stop the threat of Laughing Coffin, but the front liners gave up trying to quell the red guild because it was difficult to locate LC members in the first place. Their HQ was still unknown and their attacks were random. Asuna heard about a few LC attacks every now and then but she never thought she would become a possible victim.

She got into her fighting stance and pointed her rapier towards the three cloaked figures. Right now she had to concentrate on keeping a cool head, fighting against these players would be like fighting against monsters. However when push comes to shove, could she ever deliver a final blow to them? End their life? Essentially do what they have done?

Most likely her level would be higher than theirs, but it was a 3 against 1 fight and these LC members are in it for the kill.

"Why are you doing this? Don't you know that when you kill people in this world, they die for real!" She yelled out at them, in half desperation.

Asuna knew they were people who were long gone from the road of reason, but she wanted to hear their justification for murder.

"Hee hee silly girl, don't you know how fun it is to incite fear into the hearts of many? It is indeed very fun to hear players scream and beg for mercy."

The type of people that were in front of her were psychopaths, people unfit to belong in a normal society.

Her back up plan was to use her teleportation crystal to head back to the 56th floor town area. However it was her pride that wanted her to stay and fight. She wanted to know how deadly these LC members first hand. If only she had her guild members with her, they would have been able to capture these 3 members and force them to reveal their secrets.

Laughing Coffin were very careful to not leave any clues behind, no member has ever been caught.

The LC member with the dagger approached her first, he attempted to swipe her with a dagger skill but she was fast enough to parry it with her rapier. Afterwards her rapier shone a green color and she performed 5 linear strikes straight at him. That particular member was left injured but then at her blind spot, the two other LC members attacked. She was able to duck down to avoid one of the attacks and blocked the other with her rapier. It definitely was not a fair fight but she wanted to do her best.

The one with the axe sent a swing right at Asuna and she barely jumped back in time to avoid it while sending a linear strike forward to ward off the LC sword user. Just as she sent out another linear strike, she was not able to retaliate back in time to one of the attacking members and received a few cuts to her cheek. That lowered her HP by a bit. She had to admit one thing; these members were very fast with their weapons.

"Why are you struggling darling? We'll make your death quick and painless. Well not sure about the quick part haha!"

She was getting very ticked off. These LC members were treating this attempted murder as a fun game. To them, killing others was their sick form of entertainment.

Countless minutes passed as Asuna defended against the onslaught of three attackers. Once she got a spare second, she took a quick glance at her health meter and saw her health was already down to 70%. The health of the attackers was above 75%. At this rate, her health would just deplete lower than theirs. The teamwork and coordinated attacks of the LC members were able to nick off her damage one at a time, they were definitely an organized group.

_Looks like I have no choice but to get out of here before I become one of their victims_

Asuna felt that she was being cornered by the 3 attackers; they were both in front of her, staring at her menacingly.

"What's wrong dear, all tired out already?"

Asuna stood her ground and gritted her teeth angrily. She usually did not like to run away from a fight but this was her life at stake.

She put her free hand in her pocket and was about to take out the blue teleportation crystal.

A black blur suddenly passed through Asuna's line of vision.

SCHING!

The LC member with the sword was nearly impaled by an incoming blade. That LC member used his scimitar to block at the right second, but he still took some damage.

"Another interesting prey has appeared huh."

Asuna could not see the person who just entered into the scene since this person was wearing all black.

"Time to retreat boys!"

The LC member pushed away the person that he was crossing swords with.

Before Asuna and the other person could interfere, the three cloaked figures took out their teleportation crystals and disappeared. The two of them could not hear the location the LC members teleported to because they said different locations at once.

"Darn it, looks like Laughing Coffin is craftier than I thought." The Black Swordsman sighed frustrated. "In order to prevent us from finding where they went to, they all decided to split up."

He walked up to the Flash.

Asuna was extremely surprised to see Kirito was the one who sort of rescued her.

Kirito then looked at Asuna and gave her a slight look of disapproval.

"What were you doing out here alone? Aren't you concerned for your own safety, especially with Laughing Coffin going around and taking out people from the lower floors."

Those words from the Black Swordsman's mouth baffled the long haired girl.

"E-excuse me?! Are you any position to scold me for being on my own? You're the solo player who ventures through the clearing zones by yourself!"

Asuna was shaking her head angrily in disbelief.

"Well it's because you're a erm…" Kirito then scratched the back of his head nervously.

"I'm a what?"

"Well you are a girl after all, which makes you a more vulnerable target."

Asuna's eyes had a mixture of anger and surprise.

"Even though I am a girl, I am perfectly capable of protecting myself."

She looked away from him and gave a frustrated hmph!

Asuna had no idea why she was fuming so much in front of Kirito. She was normally a very calm person but Kirito just made her feel a bit more annoyed than usual.

_Why am I always so agitated whenever I'm around him?_

Kirito then sighed defeated.

"Ok look I'm sorry." The boy said with a genuine apologetic tone. "I didn't mean to insult you or anything. I was just worried because there are some really bad people who tried to hurt you."

Asuna's heart skipped a beat when she heard those words. The famed solo player of SAO was actually concerned for her wellbeing.

_No-no, I can't let myself become distracted with these thoughts!_

"So wait… are you a stalker or something?!"

"Wh-wha?" The black haired boy looked very confused.

"You just happened to coincidentally be in the same place I was, sounds like you are stalking me."

Asuna said with some amusement in her voice. She wanted to mess around with Kirito, especially after her defeat from their duel today.

"N-no I am not stalking you at all, you have to believe me!" The boy put his hands in front of him defensively.

"So why were you here anyways?"

The long haired girl was indeed having fun making Kirito feel flustered. Her mood had taken a complete 360 turn.

"Well I heard Fenny Fowl was on this floor so I decided to get it. I heard several players saying that they wanted the Fowl for their restaurants and they were willing to pay a high price. If it wasn't for me, goodness knows what could have happened to the famous Flash."

"I would have made it out of that situation just fine by myself."

"Anyways, do you want to find the Fowl together?"

"You mean party up? It's been a very long time since we've last done that."

Asuna could feel her heart beating faster.

"If we only find one Fowl tonight, I'll let you keep it. What are you going to do with it by the way?" Kirito asked her curiously.

"I've been working on my cooking skill and I was planning to cook it. I-I'll let you try my cooking if we do manage to get it tonight."

Those last words escaped out of Asuna's mouth. Just as she realized what she just said, she gave a small gasp and looked away embarrassed.

"Sure I'd like to try your cooking, and are you alright?" Kirito looked at her concerned.

"Y-yeah I'm fine."

Asuna did her best to regain her normal composure. For the next few hours, the two of them scoured the area and were fortunate enough to find a few Fenny Fowls. Kirito's detection and search skills were really handy and Asuna was even more impressed by the Black Swordsman's talent.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

55th floor: Grandzam

Kirito and Asuna walked towards the Knights of Blood Headquarters. The land was cheap in this floor which is what motivated the guild to settle their permanent HQ at Grandzam. The HQ was a huge steel tower which had flags hanging above the gates. The flags were red and each had an image of a sword.

A few other KoB members passed by them and they were confused as to why a non-member was going to their guild HQ. A few others gave Asuna a salute as she walked by them. At this point she was used to being treated as a top authority figure, and there was no point in telling them to act casually around her.

"So what business do you have here Kirito-san?" One of the other leaders looked at the Black Swordsman and the Flash.

"We must speak with Heathcliff."

"Alright, looks like he is free."

Asuna and Kirito opened the large gray doors and entered into the room.

Heathcliff looked at the two of them with his gray eyes. These eyes made it hard to see what the man was really thinking.

"Asuna-kun, it's rare that you bring an outsider to our guild. It must be something important."

The subleader nodded.

"Yes it is leader, it's about Laughing Coffin."

"Laughing Coffin?" The KoB leader raised his eyes interested.

"Go on, it's been a month since anyone's ever mentioned them."

Asuna began her story.

"Last night when I was on a lower floor I was attacked by a few Laughing Coffin members. Fortunately Kirito-san was there to help me."

It took Asuna a few minutes to fully explain what happened. Afterwards Heathcliff closed his eyes and sighed. He reopened them a few seconds later and spoke out.

"You have my gratitude Kirito-kun. Asuna-kun is a valuable asset to the front lines and we cannot afford to have her be in any unnecessary danger. This brings me to my next order of business. It sounds like some of the notable members of the KoB need to have protection. That is why I will be assigning Asuna-kun a body guard."

"Hah?" Asuna's mouth dropped. "With all due respect leader, I don't think I need somebody to watch over me at all times."

The Flash was completely taken aback; she took pride in her swordsmanship and independent nature.

"It's better to have extra pre caution in times like this. We never know when people plot to come after you."

"I'll just have Mikoto go with me everywhere; she and I do that anyways."

"I hope you do not take offense to what I am about to say next." Heathcliff's onyx eyes grew more serious. "You and Mikoto are girls and I feel that it is better that a male figure will be a more intimidating figure that would ward off potential attackers."

_What's with everybody talking down on girls? We're not that weak or helpless!_

"Who do you have in mind for the job? I have a higher level than many of our guild members." Asuna said in an irritated tone.

"That is why I shall ask Kirito-kun if he will take up the task."

This time it was Kirito's turn to drop his jaw in surprise.

"Wait hold on. You have no authority to tell me what to do Heathcliff, I am not one of your guild members. I am a solo player and I work at my own pace." The black haired boy objected bluntly.

"Do not be so hasty with your decision, did you not think you would be compensated?"

"Compensated?" Kirito looked confused.

Heathcliff then opened up his items menu and revealed them to Kirito.

"I probably have a few items you desire, such as the …"

Kirito's eyes went as big as coins once he heard what Heathcliff was willing to offer. Somehow Heathcliff was able to get his hands on very rare weapons and items that any player would covet. Kirito's composure changed from being serious to enthusiastic all of a sudden. The KoB leader's bribe was definitely working.

Asuna sighed.

"Men, they're always so narrow minded. I can never understand how they think."

The Flash muttered to herself while shaking her head.

"Kirito-kun, I assume we have a deal. You shall accompany Asuna-kun."

The Black Swordsman nodded, it was apparent he was hiding his giddy grin. He was acting like a kid that would be receiving a new game if he did his chores.

"You may leave now Kirito-kun, I need to talk some guild business with my sub leader."

Kirito understood and before he left the room, he promised to meet up with Asuna tomorrow at the town center of Pani.

Asuna was left stunned. She really did not need the extra protection.

"Leader, I understand your concern for me, but why did you ask an outsider like Kirito-san?"

"It's because I see Kirito as a potential significant asset for the Knights of Blood. You see, his talent could be further extended if he joined us. The other well-known front line guilds have been attempting to recruit strong members for a long time; however our guild can surely be the strongest if we have Kirito-kun by outside."

"So you're only using me to have Kirito-san join us?"

"Don't think of it as me using you. I am genuinely concerned for your well-being and I believe he is the perfect person who can protect you. Also it wouldn't hurt if you two got along on better terms, am I right?"

There was a glint in Heathcliff's eye that made Asuna slightly cringe.

_He obviously doesn't know about my conflicting feelings for Kirito-san. Then again he's the kind of person that knows unexpected things._

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The next morning at exactly 10 o'clock, Asuna saw Kirito waiting at the fountain at the town square.

"I honestly don't think I need this protection." Asuna huffed.

"Heathcliff entrusted me with your safety and I intend to keep my word."

"You're just doing this because he promised to give you those rare items."

"Every man has his secret desires. I have no idea why he has such powerful items but I've never seen him use them."

"Geez Kirito-san, sounds like you don't care about my well-being at all."

"Even though you and I sometimes don't see eye to eye, I know you are a valuable part of the front lines. That is why I shall take my job seriously."

Kirito then bowed his head down towards Asuna, as if she were a queen about to knight him. Asuna could feel her cheeks warm up more than usual.

"You don't have to address me so formally, just call me Kirito." The boy uttered.

"Hm… I'll just refer to you as Kirito-kun then."

"I've given up on honorifics ever since I joined this game, so I'll just refer to you as Asuna. I'm sorry that I've offended you in the past, especially when I call you Flash instead of your proper name."

"All is forgiven." Asuna sighed happily. She felt content looking at Kirito's relaxed expression. "Oh yeah I almost forgot."

She opened up her inventory and showed it to Kirito.

"Since you let me have the two Fenny Fowls, how about you join me for dinner?"

"J-just the two of us?" Kirito looked alarmed.

"N-N-no!" Asuna looked very flustered "It'll be at the official Fuurinkazan house, we'll be eating with Mikoto-chan, Klein-san and Touma-kun."

_A meal alone with him? Too bad I don't have my own house yet._

For the next few hours, Kirito escorted Asuna throughout the city. At first Asuna found it awkward, but then she felt comforted by his presence. She was able to see past his cold exterior and find out that he was actually a semi socially awkward boy because he had no idea how to be around girls.

When the two arrived together at the boss meeting, it caused a bit of a stir. Yesterday the two of them were arguing and today they were getting along just fine. People began whispering amongst each other. Asuna noticed the surprised expressions towards her direction but chose to ignore them. She was glad that she was able to make peace with Kirito.

On the other hand, Kirito was receiving a few death stares from the males in the room. They were jealous at how Kirito, the famed solo player, was able to be on excellent terms with Asuna. The two of them acted like they were a bit more than just good friends.

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

The sun was about to set and the strategy meeting was done. Touma and Mikoto looked towards Kirito and Asuna who were chatting with each other.

"Hey you two, do you wanna go to the teleportation gate with us-gah!"

Touma received an elbow to the stomach from Mikoto.

"Let those two enjoy time together." The short haired girl muttered.

"Oh right… you could have told me that instead of hurting me."

The misfortunate boy was rubbing his hurt stomach.

"Now I won't be able to enjoy a proper meal today." He sighed.

Mikoto shook her head amused.

"Ah geez, as if you let a stomach pain stop you from eating."

The two Academy City students headed towards the town in Pani first. The Black Swordsman and the Flash were still inside the stone hut coming up with strategies together

A few minutes later…

Kirito looked around and saw the two of them were the only ones left.

"Where did the others go…?"

Asuna then gripped onto Kirito's wrist and walked ahead, thus pulling him along.

"Let's go before they think we forgot about them. You wouldn't want to miss dinner right?"

Kirito smiled and then picked up the pace and walked by Asuna's side.

"I haven't tried any actual cooked food in a really long time. Not everybody has time to develop a cooking skill after all."

-T-T-T-T-T-T-

"Welcome to my house Kirito, it's not too shabby right?" The red samurai grinned confidently as he put an arm around Kirito. Klein was in his usual silly and cheery mood.

Kirito brushed Klein's arm off and smirked.

"I'm surprised that you could afford such a place, I imagined you'd blow off your money on random things."

"If there was booze in SAO, I'd totally get that! It's not even possible to get drunk here."

"Oy Klein most of us are under aged here."

"Ah sorry Kirito, I didn't mean to speak about such er- adult matters."

Touma saw Klein and Kirito chatting with each other and decided to join them.

"Good to see you again Kirito." Touma held his fist out towards Kirito.

The Black Swordsman fist bumped Touma

"Likewise, it's been a long time since I've heard from Fuurinkazan."

Touma grinned and said back.

"Well it's not like you visit us anyways! You're always off doing your own solo thing."

Touma and Klein saw the coast was clear since the girls occupied elsewhere. The two of them pulled Kirito to a quiet location and looked like they were going to interrogate him. Kirito sweat dropped nervously.

"Ok explain…" Klein opened his mouth.

"Why are you and Asuna suddenly getting along? It's freaky seeing you two be like boyfriend and girlfriend." Touma whispered as well.

Kirito looked genuinely confused and shocked.

"You seriously think she's my girlfriend?"

Klein face palmed.

"Do you have any idea how many guys want to be in your position? Any guy would kill to be right next to Asuna. Ok I don't mean literally kill but you get what I'm saying."

"You guys have Mikoto, why not go for her?"

"As if Biri biri would let any guy hit on her. She'd immediately pull out her sword and threaten to stab them… at least that's better than receiving electric shocks."

Klein and Kirito were not completely sure what Touma was referring to when he was talking about electric powers.

"The food's ready!"

The two girls announced out loud.

Mikoto and Asuna had been in the kitchen preparing the Fenny Fowl as well as a few other side dishes. Asuna had gotten to the house ten minutes after Mikoto, which made Mikoto slightly disappointed because Mikoto was hoping Asuna would have been out longer. After all, Asuna and Kirito were finally getting along.

It took a few minutes until all of Fuurinkazan and the others gathered into the dining room.

Klein's eyes beamed brightly.

"Alright! I didn't eat last night so I can't wait to have something to savor on."

"You two have certainly improved your cooking skill." Touma nodded with approval.

All of the savory dishes were brought to the large table. The Fenny Fowls were specifically put in the center of the table since it was the main course everybody was looking forward to.

"LET'S DIG IN!"

"YEAH!"

Just as the meal was about to feasted upon, everybody in the room received a message.

Klein grumbled as he was about to open up the message.

"What bad timing. Looks like it's something from Heathcliff."

A message from Heathcliff that everybody got, that must mean urgent news.

The message stated:

**Please head to the town square of the 56****th**** floor. There will be an emergency meeting.**

"We better get going then."

Mikoto got up from her chair along with Asuna. The two girls were heading off to a private room to switch into their battle gear.

"B-but the food…" Kirito looked distraught.

"I feel your pain bro, but duty comes first." Klein patted the Black Swordsman's shoulder.

They all left the Fuurinkazan house and made their way to the teleportation gate.

Once they stepped out of the gate, they were back to the 56th floor. They were not the first people to arrive, it looked like fifty others were already present. Everybody was chatting amongst each other, wondering why in the world they were summoned right away.

Heathcliff was such an influential person to the battlefield that he is capable of convincing every front liner to come out for a meeting.

The town square of Pani was relatively large, enough to hold several hundred people. Though this floor's town square paled in comparison with the starting floor considering how all 10,000 players at one point gathered in one spot.

A little while later the tall and valiant leader of the KoB stepped up on the edge of the fountain in the middle of the town square. Heathcliff was now standing a little bit above the rest of the players and his voice boomed out loud.

"Thank you for coming here quickly, I have some terrible news."

He took a deep breath and then continued with his eyes unwearied.

"A four man party led by Rygar of the Knights of Blood has been killed."

Those simple and short words had an effect unlike any other.

"Killed?"

"Who is capable of killing off front liners?"

"Why would anyone dare commit murder in the first place?!"

There were some concerned hushed voices throughout the town square. The atmosphere felt more tense and unsettling.

Asuna put both hands over her mouth as she gasped. Rygar was the boy who tried to propose to her yesterday, and now he suddenly gone from this world. Her entire body was shaking uncontrollably. She felt a bit light headed and was about to fall down but she heard a reassuring voice.

"Calm down Asuna, we are the front liners; we cannot afford to feel fear." Kirito spoke strongly yet darkly.

He looked like he was suppressing his frustration at the situation. His fists were clenched shut and his eyes were like an icy soldier's.

Heathcliff continued on with his strong tone of voice. The spirits of the front liners were currently shaken and they needed a steady leader for reassurance.

"It appears that we are dealing with no ordinary criminals. The suspects appear to be using poison or traps in order to subdue their victims. I think most of us can guess who the culprits are."

_It couldn't be!_

"Laughing Coffin has officially become an even worse threat to all of Aincrad. We must do whatever it takes to stop their mindless slaughter."

Heathcliff's rich voice echoed amongst all of the clearing players. Now was the time to take action, with the front liners now being a target of murder.

A war was about to begin.

**Author's Note:**

Hello there loyal readers, I apologize for taking so long with this update but at least I didn't give up on this story. For a while I had the story be on hiatus due to University and because I did not receive much feedback on the previous chapter. Please drop a review for this story, it can be anything like criticism (be constructive and how I can improve), comments, concerns, just no flames cause those are just mean haha. I generally take reviews as a sign that my readers are still interested in this story's progress.

So another concern I have to point out now is about teleportation crystals. The info on the teleportation crystals say that they can be used to teleport individuals to town areas. However red/orange players are not allowed to enter town areas so I assume they can use the crystals to go from floor to floor within the combat zones. So basically the Laughing Coffin members used their crystals to go to different non-town zones.

Anyways, the story has diverged from the original canon material at this point. After all, it wouldn't be too fun to read if I just kept to the plot line from the light novels. This was a very Asuna/Kirito centric chapter, which seemed like something many readers wanted to see more. More Touma/Mikoto to come in the future!

Please look forward to the next chapter; it'll be the clash between Laughing Coffin and the front liners!

**Next chapter**: Bloody Funeral


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